Category Archives: Disney

Disney, Travel

January 1, 2018 – Part One

We woke up relatively early, and called bell services. While we waited for them to arrive, we finished packing up the last few items, before handing over all our luggage. After two nights at Pop, we were moving up to a much fancier hotel for the night!

I also realized I had not taken pictures of our room when we first arrived since we were in a hurray to get to Magic Kingdom – what a bad trip reporter I am! I took the time to take some before we left – so ignore the fact that the bed isn’t perfectly made, etc.

   *I thought the showers were pretty nice!

            *A pocket door and full-length mirror separated the sink area from the toilet/shower

      *I didn’t use it, but there was a hair dryer, iron and full-size ironing board in the room

*Again, ignore the terrible job at making the bed, I just pulled the blankets up so it wasn’t a crumpled mess. The bed itself was decent, and it was really nice to have plug-ins on either side to charge our phones at night.

*Even more plug-ins underneath the TV! I was impressed by the amount in these renovated rooms

 *The safe is small, but more than enough for us to keep our passports safe! It was also used to keep our wedding bands safe, since we couldn’t wear them yet!

 *I think this is a great use of space! Since it was just the two of us, we left it set up as a table for the duration of our stay, but I can see how it’d be a bit cramped if you had to leave it down as a bed during your trip.

*The headboard of the pull-down bed

  *It was incredibly easy to pull down the bed/push it back up, I’m a weakling and I didn’t find it too heavy at all

*The clear-front mini fridges are pretty mini, they really don’t hold much at all…

We had been cutting through the parking lot to get to the buses/main building at Pop, since it was much quicker, but we decided to actually walk through the resort (seeing as how we were leaving, and still hadn’t done this…)

We went to Everything Pop food court, but we realized we didn’t really have time to sit down and have a proper breakfast, so we each grabbed a pre-made sandwich from the refrigerator section. I didn’t take pictures of them or the receipt but I had turkey and Luke had ham – both on white bread with cheddar cheese. If I remember correctly, they didn’t have any type of sauce on them, but they had mayo/mustard/etc packets to put on yourself. This food court typically accepts Tables in Wonderland, but it was still a blackout date so we paid full price – $7.50/sandwich. Not a great deal, but the sandwiches were decent and were enough food to hold us over.

Luke sat down on a bench by the front door to eat, and called an Uber at the same time. I ran over to the front desk to make sure I didn’t need to do anything special to check out of the hotel (there’s sometimes different rules since we’re International, plus I had booked our two night stay at Pop using the room block we had set up for our wedding). By the time I got back over to Luke, his entire sandwich was gone, our Uber was about a minute away and I hadn’t started eating – anyone who knows me, knows I’m the slowest eater on the planet haha. I ate half of that thing so fast! I hate eating in other people’s vehicles, so I shoved the other half into my purse haha.

We said goodbye to Pop Century, and headed off for another volunteer shift at Give Kids the World!

Next: January 1, 2018 – Part Two

Disney, Travel, Uncategorized

Treat Your Feets – Running Shoe Tips

If you’re going to spend a prolonged period of time at either Disneyland  or Walt Disney World – prepare to take a lot of steps. Tens of thousands of them. It’s a real test of more than just your Fitbit. When you add in the fact that good chunks of time get spent waiting in line surrounded by way more people that you can imagine – the importance of a good shoe cannot be understated. It’s the best tip I can give to anyone visiting the parks. Take care of your feet. How?

If you’re a sandals person – don’t wear flip flops. That’s for sure. If Birkenstocks are your jam – go wild with your most comfy pair. Some people even advocate for Crocs. If they’re comfy, sure – why not? Personally – I think sandals are gross. No one needs to smell your foot sweat. Contain your toe jam svp.

But if you are the type to wear your most comfy sneakers – I got your back.

If you have a store in your area that specializes in running/walking gear – go there and get a gait test. It should be free. Basically there are 3 types of ways people step. Some land square with every step (neutral shoe), some are a bit off-centre and their ankles/heels flex/pronate a bit so they need a shoe that counteracts that movement (stability shoe), and some people over-flex/pronate and they need a shoe that really accounts for that movement (motion-control shoe). Around these parts we have Running Room. I don’t know what the US/UK equivalent would be. But having the right shoe for the type of stepper you are makes a HUGE difference. Modern running/walking shoes are engineered to take the type of punishment a park day delivers. I’m a New Balance fan but Asics, Saucony, Mizuno, Roku, Brooks, Nike all are stellar too. Figure out whether you’re a Neutral, Stability or Motion-Control walker, get at least 2 pairs to rotate through (a shoe should have a day to recover from the type of punishment WDW can deliver) and combine them with a good pair of performance or running socks.

So there. Take care of your feet. It’s a marathon. Not a fashion show.

Disney, Food Review

Homecomin’ – December 31, 2017

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Easily one of our favourite meals from our 2017 trip was at Homecomin’. We actually loved it so much that we decided it was the perfect venue for our wedding reception- fried chicken while wearing a wedding dress? Yes please! We knew we would not be brave enough to enter any of the theme parks on New Year’s Eve, so we planned on spending time in Disney Springs that night. Despite having the reception booked at Homecomin’ the following week, we decided we needed to eat there on our own as well. We made a late reservation, 8:50pm since we were going to be volunteering at Give Kids the World until 6pm and we weren’t sure how long it would take to get back to Disney property.

After walking around Disney Springs, we checked in to Homecomin’ early where they told us we probably wouldn’t be seated until our ADR time since they were busy. They handed us a pager, and Luke decided to run to the public bathroom right across from the restaurant since we were expecting a 15-20 minute wait. Of course, the pager went off about 90 seconds later and we were led to a table in the bar side of the restaurant. – I was excited for a minimal wait since I’d been dreaming about their food haha!
We were handed menus which we didn’t really need since we knew exactly what we both wanted to order already.

Of course, first up were drinks! I ordered my favourite, the Moonshine Mash – watermelon infused moonshine, fresh watermelon, lime juice and simple syrup, $12. My drink was as delicious as I remembered it, and it was not the last one I had on this trip…

Luke opted for the Rumshine Punch –  strawberry rumshine, blackberry brandy, banana liqueur, pineapple juice and house-made grenadine, $12

For food, we both pretty much knew what we wanted before we even got there. Luke wanted a few appetizers so he ordered the Church Lady Deviled Eggs – HFK style whole deviled eggs, $12 and the Thigh-High Chicken Biscuits – three biscuits topped with Chef Art Smith’s famous fried chicken thighs and bread and butter pickles. Drizzled with honey, $15.

Luke had tried the deviled eggs the previous year, and they once again did not disappoint. I rarely (if ever eat eggs), so I skipped trying these. The chicken biscuits were a new item for us to try, but we’d read/heard lots of great things about them – and they were fantastic! I’m not even a big fan of chicken thighs, I prefer white meat, but this stuff was cooked so well I enjoyed it. I’m also not a big fan of pickles, so I did remove those from the few bites I had, but the honey was a nice addition to the already delicious biscuits. Luke loves their hot sauce, and added it to both his eggs and his chicken biscuits.

I wanted fried chicken, so I ordered Art’s Famous Fried Chicken – buttermilk brined for 24 hours then perfectly fried served with creamy mashed potatoes and a cheddar drop biscuit, $28.

At one point, Luke asked me if I was angry at him for something since I was being so quiet – I was just too busy stuffing my face with fried chicken that I didn’t even realize I wasn’t talking! I guess that’s a sign I was enjoying my meal haha. The chicken is so juicy and tender, the cheddar drop biscuits are amazing (I’ve heard that the secret ingredient in those is cream cheese, but I have no proof of this) and the mashed potatoes were creamy and  delicious. I did have a side of gravy as well – which is southern sausage gravy and has a really great flavour!

At some point, Luke ordered another drink, a Muleshine – Tim Smith’s Climax Moonshine, peach puree, fresh lime juice and a splash of Q Spectacular Ginger Beer, $13.

Luke loves mules, so I’m surprised he didn’t start with this drink! He actually preferred his first drink a bit more, but there was nothing left of this one.

Despite being stuffed, there’s always room for dessert when you’re at Homecomin’ – there’s only a few options, but all the ones we’ve tried have been great!

We decided to share something, so we ordered a slice of Hamilton County Chocolate Pecan Pie – a 100 year-old traditional Smith Family Farm recipe. Served with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream, $10.

This was amazing – my new favourite dessert! It seriously doesn’t look like much, but it was so rich and chocolately and filled with pecans – and those pecans by the scoop of ice cream were candied -yum! We actually have one of Chef Art Smith’s cookbooks, and Luke made this pie one day. It turned out really well, and was so delicious!

The place was really busy this night, since it was NYE. People were having a good time, and since we were sitting beside the bar we could see the amount of drinks the bartenders were making – it was a lot. The service was a little slow that night, since it was one of the bartenders assigned to our table – but no real complaints!

Our total bill came to $100.64 after saving 10% with my annual pass.

TIW black out day – But I was able to save 10% using my Annual Pass

Predicted food budget: $2631.67                                                                             Estimated Cost of this meal: $152.30 ( I budgeted more drinking, it was NYE after all! But, we were tired and didn’t feel like any more)     Actual Cost: $100.64                                                                             Over/Under: Under by $51.66                                                                 Remaining: $2346.73

Next meal: 1900 Park Fare

Disney, Travel

December 31, 2017

We slept in a bit, but we were still up by 9:30 or so. We got ready for the day, and headed towards the main building to call an Uber to take us to the Grand Floridian. 

As soon as we walked in the door, I spotted Richard! For those who don’t know, Richard is a long-time cast member at the Grand who was still working a few days each week as a greeter, despite being in his early 90’s. He’s a bit of a celebrity among the Disney Wedding groups, so of course I had to stop to talk to him, and get a picture with him! 

He was so adorable, and so friendly! I mentioned that we were getting married at Disney, but he was sad we were holding our ceremony at Sea Breeze Point and not the Wedding Pavilion. He’s known for helping Wedding Pavilion brides with the train on their dress while pictures are being taken on the staircase in the Grand Floridian. He unfortunately passed away in June 2018, so I am very glad I stopped to talk to him for a few minutes during this trip <3

The Christmas decorations were all still up at the Grand, and I naturally had to take pictures of the tree (and of course, the lobby itself)!

The entire lobby smelled like gingerbread, I’m sure partly thanks to the giant gingerbread house they had set up there, which was so adorable! I’m fairly certain they were pumping the smell of gingerbread into the lobby as well.

We were starting to get close to our dining reservation, so we headed outside and made our way over to Narcoossee’s for their brunch.

While we were eating, we received a push-notification that Magic Kingdom had reached capacity- no thank you to being in those crowds! This was as close to the castle as I wanted to be on this day:

Once we finished our meal, we thought we had lots of time, so we decided to go for a walk around the resort. We followed the pathway all the way over to the Wedding Pavilion- even though it was not the location of our wedding ceremony, I thought it was a beautiful venue and I wanted to see Picture Point (located just outside it). They’ve since restructured the pricing, but at the time when we signed our contract for our wedding, it was an extra $2000 to use the Wedding Pavilion for an Escape wedding – I just couldn’t justify that, since that was enough to cover our reception at Homecomin’…

I had to take a picture of the Franck’s door, even though I never got to go through it. Disney offers three packages for weddings – Memories (basically an elopement – for the couple and 4 guests, cost was $2500 when we signed our contract), Escape (the couple plus 18 guests, cost was $5000 for Sea Breeze Point when we signed our contract) and Wishes (started at $12,000 and could go as high as you’re willing to spend). I initially was looking at Memories, and just having parents there, but Luke really wanted more so we jumped up to Escape. With the two lower tier packages, all correspondence is completed through email/phone calls – however if you are having a Wishes wedding you actually have an in-person planning session which is held at Franck’s (including cake tasting!).

Picture Point is so perfect with Cinderella’s Castle perfectly framed behind it <3

We called an Uber as we walked back towards the main entrance. We sat down on a bench, and watched as the estimated time of arrival kept changing – we had forgot about all the traffic trying to head to Magic Kingdom! We were heading to Give Kids the World for a volunteer shift from 3-6:30, but we were supposed to be there at 2:30 to sign in, get trained, etc. We had gave ourselves plenty of time to get there on a normal day, but not New Years Eve! What a rookie mistake, we should have known better! We eventually realized we were not going to make it there by 2:30, so we called the GKTW Village but they didn’t seem too upset by it. Our Uber finally showed up – no fault of the driver for taking so long, the lines of cars we passed as we drove away from the Magic Kingdom area was insane!

We finally arrived at GKTW around 2:50, so at least we weren’t late for our shift to start. It had taken almost 45 minutes for our Uber to reach us at the Grand Floridian, so we would have been there early if it wasn’t for NYE traffic.

For those who don’t know, GKTW Village is a non-profit resort in Kissimmee which provides week long vacations for the families of children with life-threatening illnesses. They work with groups around the world like Make-A-Wish to make theme park dreams come true. I believe I heard that about 60% of wishes involve the Orlando area (Disney, Universal, etc), so this is where they stay. Everything on site is free for the families – they receive meal credits to use throughout the week, theme park tickets, etc. There are a few little rides on site – a train, Merry-go-Round, etc, and lot of organized activities. A lot of the day-to-day operations of the entire resort are run by volunteers, so we had decided it was a good way to spend NYE since we didn’t want to go to a park.

We checked in and were led to the Ice Cream Palace where a supervisor gave us a quick run-down of what we needed to do. Our shift began at 3, and lasted until 6:30pm.

There were eight kinds of ice cream available, plus non-dairy options were kept in a freezer in the back room to avoid cross-contamination. The families staying at the Village had no limit on what/how much they could order – or when! The ice cream palace opened every day for breakfast! There was hot fudge and hot caramel for sundaes, bananas for banana splits, milk and mixers for milkshakes, sprinkles, Oreo bits, etc for toppings and a Coke freestyle machine for drinks (or floats!).

The ice cream shop itself was decorated with a CandyLand theme, and was very bright, colourful and fun!

Our 3.5 hour shift wasn’t overly busy, but it did stay steady. Even when we had downtime, we kept busy by wiping down tables, restocking ice cream, making sure the napkin dispensers were full, etc.  Creativity was encouraged, and I made some crazy concoctions during our time there! A banana split with hot fudge and Oreo crumbs and a dozen cherries on top? Done! A milkshake with cherries and sprinkles blended into it? Done!

It was a really fun way to spend an afternoon, and all too soon our shift was over. It was dark out by this point, and we took our time walking through the village and seeing it all lit up. They actually celebrate Christmas one day every week, Halloween one day a week and have a birthday party for the children once a week, so I believe it stays decorated year round.

I’ve been asked a few times already how we went about even setting up this volunteer shift. It was actually very easy, you just need to fill out an application on their website, http://www.gktw.org/volunteer/

After we signed out, we called an Uber to take us back to Disney property. We were dropped off at Disney Springs and the driver dropped us off on the east side. I believe they are supposed to do drop offs on the west side by the old Cirque du Solieil building now, so I don’t know if this driver didn’t know that or if it was just easier with the NYE traffic. I prefer being dropped off on the east side, and it worked out perfectly for checking out the Christmas Tree Trail. Enjoy my million pictures from this!

We had lots of time before our supper reservation so we took our time looking at each tree, before walking around a very crowded World of Disney. We also stopped in Amorettes to see their Christmas display, but we decided not to buy anything at that point (which I now regret, as I never made it back there on this trip – Luke did, but he didn’t take pictures).

We were still a bit early, but we decided to go check in for our reservation at Homecomin’. We only had to wait a few minutes before they had a table ready for us!

Once we finished eating, we were tired and headed back to Pop Century. We packed up our stuff in preparation for our hotel move the following day, and were both asleep before midnight- we both woke up when we heard the fireworks and sleepily said “Happy New Year” before rolling over and going back to sleep. We are such party animals haha.

Total Fitbit Steps: 11,675

Next: January 1, 2018 – Part One

Disney, Travel

Final Thoughts – January 2017 Trip

This was only our second trip to Walt Disney World, but it was one to remember (see: Proposal story!).

It was our first time doing a split stay on Disney property, and it was so easy! Bell services were fantastic and it was so nice to not have to move our luggage ourselves. I’m not sure if we’ll ever do a full stay in one place again.

It was also our first time renting DVC points, and it was a smooth process- one which we’ve already used again multiple times! I don’t think we could ever afford to pay rack rate for the Deluxe Resorts, so DVC makes it affordable for us. We also loved both Old Key West and Saratoga Springs.

We used the dining plan on our first trip, but opted to pay for all meals out of pocket this time – which we definitely preferred. I don’t see us using the dining plan again.

It sucks that the half marathon was cancelled for Luke, but it gave us an excuse to attend a runDisney event in California since they allowed him to transfer his registration. I also ran my first ever 5k during this trip, which was so well organized and fun (I don’t see myself ever running a regular 5k though, runDisney events only!)

Overall, it was a great trip, and I’m so lucky that Luke loves Disney just as much as I do, and that we get to make these memories together <3

Disney, Travel

January 12, 2017

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It was the worst day of the trip – time to go home. Magical Express was picking us up around 11am, so we finished packing up and headed over to the main building by 10am. We decided to grab some food at the Artist’s Palette – the quick service location. I like the ceiling in there a lot, it’s very cute.

We had time, so Luke sat and enjoyed his food. We said our goodbyes to Walt Disney World, got on the Tragical Express and headed home to Canada.

I just realized I didn’t really take any pictures of our room, other than a detail shot of the little thing that laid across the bottom of the bed – I have no idea what it’s actually called, but I loved it! It was so subtly Disney – you don’t even notice the Fox and the Hound at first glance!

We also had a nice view from our balcony (which we never really used…)

Next: Final Thoughts

Disney

The 5th WDW Park That Totally Is Not Happening At All

Walt Disney World is 43 square miles. That’s roughly the size of Montreal (San Francisco if you’d prefer to translate that to American). That includes 34 hotels (Including all variations of Value, Moderate, Deluxe, Deluxe Villas, Shades of Green, the 4 Seasons & the Swolphin), 4 theme parks, some golf courses, a mini golf course, a doggy daycare, a random McDonalds from when they had a partnership before people cared about trans fats, Disney Springs, 2 water parks, fire hall, police station, water treatment plant I had the pleasure of running past once and a whole bunch of other empty land.

A super common conversation among Dis-nerds is what would Disney do if they opened a 5th gate in Florida? They’ve got the space? Where’s my 5th park?

The logical argument is for either a Star Wars Park (feasible) or a Marvel one (impossible because of the Marvel deal with Universal that pre-dates the Disney acquisition).

As much as it would be sweet to have a park exclusively dedicated to the villainous Icelandic hockey team from Mighty Ducks 2 – it’s best to drop the ridiculous cloud talk and recognize there really is only 1 option.

I know we just got Toy Story Land, and there’s already Nemo, Monsters Inc and eventually a Ratatouille atraction- but a pure Pixar Park would be stellar. Pixar has created so many worlds that would be amazing to see come to life. So here’s my proposal:

  • To start – move what’s left of A Bug’s Land from California Adventure. I’m talking Heimlich’s Chew Chew Train, Francis’ Ladybug Boogie, Tuck & Roll’s Drive’em Buggies, the splash pad, the accoutrements and even the churro stand that sells ants on a log for the kiddos.
  • Next,  move over the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor and free up valuable space in Tomorrowland. Bring That Guy to the new park too.
  • Same for Turtle Talk with Crush
  • Replicate Incredicoaster, plus the midway games of Pixar Pier, Bing Bong’s Candy Shop, Lamplight Lounge cause it seems to be a hit and most importantly bring The Adorable Snowman to the East Coast so both coasts can enjoy a Lemon Dole Whip
  • Radiator. Springs. Racers.
  • All of Radiator Springs, really.
  • You can’t not have some new innovations, so create a Midway Mania style archery ride with Merida.
  • Bring the Land of the Dead from Coco to life. Maybe throw in Abuelita’s restaurant (with a mariachi and a NO MUSIC! section)
  • Create something new with the WALL-E/Up IPs. Imagine a Paradise Falls or a Buy N Large! Or a flying house ride? Sell some Kevin stuffies.
  • They already have meet and greets with Joy, Sadness, Dug, Russell – that could move over.
  • Have a Remy’s or Linguini restaurant. 2 credits on the Disney Dining Plan, naturally. And Woody’s Lunch Box. Quick Serve obvs.
  • Some kind of Marine Life Institute. Even if it’s not Monterrey Bay, California.
  • The Monsters University Mess Hall.
  • Somewhere to screen The Good Dinosaur because it’s better than people give it credit for. IT’S ABOUT HAVING A PET AND THE LOVE THE TWO OF YOU SHARE YOU HEARTLESS MONSTERS!!!
  • Something cool with Inside Out. I’m no imagineer. They can figure this out. Okay… FINE! Maybe a 5 track ride where you don’t know whether your trip will involve joy, Sadness, Disgust, Fear or Anger as your Jungle Cruise-esque virtual skipper? Get a water dark ride so there’s some bromine presence here too.

I know there’s a lot of redundancy in this crazy hypothetical but in this day & age, creating a brand new park from scratch with all new rides just isn’t feasible. When Pandora is north of $1 billion, an entire park would be what? North of $10 billion?

It’s a stretch but it wouldn’t be impossible. Plus – I want some kind of meet and greet with Gerald. I like his moxie.

Get after it Iger. Feel free to hire me on as a consultant. I’m willing to consider it….

Disney, Travel

January 11, 2017 – Part Three

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There was a short posted wait time for Mad Tea Party – and you can’t go to Magic Kingdom and NOT ride the teacups!

We decided to continue our relaxing day, and headed over to the Carousel of Progress to see the Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow…

We found a Photopass Photographer by the side of the castle, so we decided to stop for some more pictures

 

We then headed back into Fantasyland to use a Fastpass we had grabbed to meet some princesses! The other side didn’t have too long of a wait, so we decided to meet all four of them!

I find Cinderella to be an incredibly boring princess, much too prim and proper to be entertaining. We didn’t spend much time with her, just said hello, she commented on our Just Engaged buttons, we took a few pictures and that was about it.

       *more unexpected Photopass pictures haha*

So, we had no idea who Elena of Avalor was, but she was probably our favourite princess we met that day – she was very bubbly and adorable. I wish I could remember our conversation with her, but of course I’m writing this a year and a half after it happened… I love these pictures of Elena and Luke though  <3

This Magicshot was clearly meant for Cinderella, not Elena – and I find most of these things weird… but here you go!

We then headed to the other side of Princess Hall – to meet Tiana and Rapunzel! Both were great, and really excited to learn we had just got engaged the day before.

By the time we finished meeting the princesses, I felt like a snack, so I grabbed a churro. This was actually the first one I’ve ever had in Florida – and it was kind of gross. It had clearly been sitting under a heat lamp for a little bit too long – the ones I’ve had at Disneyland have always been hot and fresh. I was disappointed, but I still ate it.

We wandered around a bit, I think we went to see Enchanted Tales with Belle (but I have no pictures to prove this, so you’ll just have to believe me…), before jumping in line for The Little Mermaid ride – where I was once again handed a red card! Twice in one day!

We caught the train over by The Barnstormer, and rode it all the way around to Frontierland.

We had never been on Splash Mountain in the dark, and the wait time was basically non-existent so it was a great time to try it out! We came oh-so-close to have a boat to ourselves! Maybe one day…

It was getting close to time for Wishes, so we decided to watch from the bridge in Frontierland. It’s not the best viewing location, but we could see the fireworks and it wasn’t crowded at all.

There were Extra Magic Hours this night, so we did not join the rush of people leaving the park after the fireworks. Luke realized he hadn’t ate since lunch, and decided it was time for him to have a snack. He decided to grab one of his favourites, a Dole Whip Float.

He enjoyed it, as always. We sat for a few minutes while he ate it, and we realized we didn’t have many things we wanted to accomplish during Extra Magic Hours, that we would just go on rides with short wait times. We walked over and The Many Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh was a walk-on so we hopped in a honey pot and went to visit the 100-Acre Wood. We then headed over to Tomorrowland for our final ride of our trip – Buzz Lightyear.

After Luke beat me yet again on Buzz, we decided to say goodbye to the parks for this trip and headed out to the bus stop. We headed back to Saratoga Springs, and finished packing up. We ate some of the snacks/leftovers we had in the room – we realized we had forgot to eat supper haha. Whoops?! After shoving some food in, we crashed pretty quickly – we had a relaxing day, but it was still a long day.

Disney, Travel

January 11, 2017 – Part Two

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After meeting the four characters in the Circus tent, we went to check out the merchandise for sale in there. We decided to pick up a pink ear hat and have it embroidered with the name of our 3 year old neighbour as a gift for her.

From there, we made our way over to the most thrilling ride in the Magic Kingdom – the Tomorrowland Transit Authority Peoplemover!

When we walked back into the Hub, we noticed a meet and greet for a character we’d never met before, so we headed over and got into line. There was only a few people in front of us, so it wasn’t long before we were introducing ourselves to Mary Poppins (don’t tell her I’ve never watched her movie…)!

We started making our way down Main Street to leave the park, but we took our time, browsing in the shops as we went. I found a super cute Chip and Dale shirt – which I made Luke buy me since he had forgot my wallet in the room haha.

We made our way out of the park, and headed over to the boat dock. We only had to wait a few minutes before a boat arrived to take us to the Wilderness Lodge. It was our first time visiting that resort, and our first time taking one of the Magic Kingdom boats. It’s such a nice relaxing way to travel.

We were a little early, but we checked in anyway for our reservation at Whispering Canyon Cafe. You can read the review by clicking on the link.

Once we finished eating, I decided I wanted to change into my new shirt, so I ran to the bathroom to do a quick change and put my hair into a braid. We then caught the boat back over to the Magic Kingdom.

We stopped for a few pictures by the train station – something which is a lot less crowded in the middle of the afternoon. The photographer tried to make us do some weird, awkward poses, and it looks like Luke is about to lift me up into some kind of cheerleading pose in the last one…

 

We decided to go meet Tinkerbell, something we’d never done there – but when we saw a posted wait time of 5 minutes we figured it was the perfect time. I was finally awarded the honour of being the chosen one, and handed a red card as we entered the line – I was way too excited about that.

The posted wait time was inaccurate haha – we literally walked in to meet her, she was just saying goodbye to a family. So our wait was actually more like 15.8 seconds (and no, I did not actually time that).

Tinkerbell was really cute, and a lot of fun.

I can’t believe I’m going to share this picture – anyone who has used Memory Maker on a WDW trip has some…unfortunate photos taken of them haha. The photographer’s tend to take pictures right before you meet the character, but most of the time I don’t even realize they’re doing it… this was one of those times. I figure everyone can use a good laugh – so enjoy my extra chins and mostly-closed eyes and stupid grin hahahaha – thanks Disney Photopass Photographer at Tinkerbell….

We headed up Main Street and went to ride Haunted Mansion again. It’s been so long since this trip actually happened, but I assume we had grabbed a Fastpass for it (or it just had a really short posted wait time?).

We then headed back into Fantasyland, where we stopped for another new to us thing – pictures with the Sword in the Stone! Not surprisingly, neither one of us pulled it out.

Next: Part Three

Disney, Food Review

Narcoossee’s Brunch – December 31, 2017

We had a lengthy wish list of dining options we wanted to fit into this trip, and one of the fancy brunches were at the top of the list. I was leaning a bit more towards the Brunch at the Top at the California Grill, but on our ADR day we were able to book Narcoossee’s, so that’s the one we were going with. I’m now glad this is the one we did, as it ended up being canceled shortly after this trip. We were both excited for it!

We caught an Uber from Pop Century over to the Grand Floridian, and walked over to Narcoossee’s.

Our reservation was at 11:25, and the restaurant was fairly empty. After we checked in, I had to stand and admire this thing for a few minutes – so impressive!

It only took a few minutes before we were led to our seats, a 4-top right by a window with a great view of Seven Seas Lagoon and Cinderella’s Castle in the background.

The brunch menu at Narccoossee’s was a prix fixe, and included drinks, an appetizer, an entree and a dessert plate.

When our server came to take our order, we both went for a Mimosa, and Luke also asked for French-press coffee (we thought there might be an upcharge for this, but there wasn’t). Our server, Nelson, also came back with glasses of water, lemon slices and Mickey straws for us as well (our server told us the straws were a New Year’s Eve present, so I don’t think they gave these out all the time).

We also had a basket of pastries brought to our table – croissants, cheese danishes and mini citrus muffins.

Accompaniments for the pastries were fresh jam and fancy butter (if I remember correctly, that was hibiscus on top – I call butter with anything added to it “fancy butter”).

I’m not typically a big pastry person – I like white bread but could care less about croissants. That said, if all croissants tasted like that one, I would eat them a lot more frequently! It was so flaky and fresh and buttery (also helped along by me smearing butter all over it haha). I tried the danish, but I’m still not a fan (no complaints from Luke, it meant he got to eat both of them haha). The mini muffins were pretty good, nice and moist and really delicious with that jam.

We could each choose an appetizer, so that was an easy choice for me – I don’t eat seafood of any kind (personal preference, not an allergy), and three of the four options had something from the sea (crab, shrimp and salmon). So, I went for the only other option, the Romaine Salad – tender leaves of romaine, marinated half-dried tomatoes, shaved pecorino Romano, garlicky focaccia croutons and creamy Caesar dressing.

This was pretty good, although fairly standard. Yes, I realize Caesar dressing typically has anchovies in it, but for some reason I’m okay with it.

Luke wanted to try something different, and since he has a mild shellfish allergy he decided salmon would be the safest bet, so he asked for the Salmon Rillette with fine herb Bavarols – served with whole-grain cranberry baguettes. Neither one of us knew exactly what he had just ordered (we are not fancy foodies at all), but what showed up was nothing like we could have imagined.

Luke wasn’t 100% sure how to eat this, so he just started spooning it onto the baguette pieces they provided. Clearly he wasn’t putting it on thick enough, he had a lot of the salmon mixture left once he quickly ran out of bread. He did like it though – although he wishes he had just gone with the Caesar salad as well.

Entree’s were a difficult decision, I really wanted to try multiple. I’ve heard that the servers will sometimes bring you more than one entree at these brunches, but despite my not-so-subtle hints at that, our server never mentioned that as an option so we decided on one each.

Luke opted for the Chicken and Waffles – crispy fried boneless breast and thigh with creamy collard greens on a waffle with maple-bacon bourbon jam, house-made apple butter and candied walnut crumble.

The syrup came in a separate little dish to pour on yourself

This sounded amazing, and was one of the front runners for my top choice of entree, but it really wasn’t that great. Luke described it as McNuggets on an okay waffle. He didn’t hate it, but he really regrets not getting the other entree he was eyeing up – the Swordfish. He felt that the Chicken and Waffles was not worth the price we paid for this meal – but he blames himself for choosing the safe and comfortable option over being a little more adventurous. 

I went for the Steak and Eggs – black angus hanger steak, two cage free brown eggs any style, marble potato home fries and truffle aioli.

This was a winner (although the plating left a bit to be desired)! I don’t eat eggs very often, they can sometimes be a trigger food that aggravates my Crohn’s disease, so while ordering I let Luke decide on those (he kept it simple and asked for scrambled). I did steal a little bite of them, and they were ok… I’m actually weird and when I do eat them, I like my scrambled eggs really browned up (basically burnt by egg standards haha). Those potatoes though, oh man. Incredible. I probably could have made an entire meal just out of those! The truffle aioli on top of them was fantastic, I didn’t want to share any with Luke (but of course I did since he was a bit disappointed in his meal).

The steak, while not the fanciest cut, was perfectly cooked well done as requested. I really enjoyed it! I know – I’m about to hear all the boo’s from you rare-medium steak people – I just can’t do it. If there’s so much as a speck of blood on my plate, I’m done. I prefer my steak to no longer be mooing…

The dessert was a Trio of Desserts – Valencia blood orange bar, triple chocolate cake and lemon blueberry timbale. I believe they only brought us one plate of these for the two of us to share – I’m not sure if that’s standard, but I’m sure we could have asked for a second one. However, we were both really full by this point, and sharing the three desserts was more than enough. We also didn’t want to take any with us, as we were not heading back to our hotel room for awhile and didn’t feel like carrying them around.

They were all really good! I loved the edible gold on the triple chocolate cake (which didn’t actually have any taste, but I just felt so fancy eating it – not hard to tell we don’t eat out at nice places very often haha). The chocolate cake was my favourite of the three desserts, which wasn’t a huge surprise to me. I’m not always a huge lemon or blueberry fan, but this timbale was ok. I honestly have no idea what timbale even is (a common theme with this meal haha) but it was good. I also liked the orange-flavoured one – but I tend to like anything orange.

After we ate, we headed out onto the deck overlooking the water. Such a nice view!

Since it was New Year’s Eve, it was a blackout day for my Tables in Wonderland card. However, I was able to use my annual pass discount, so it was at least something (10% discount). The total cost for both of us came to $132.28 before tip.

This brunch disappeared a few weeks later, which is too bad since I’ve heard the brunch at California Grill has gone downhill a bit. Even if it were still an option, I’m not sure if this would be something I’d do every single time (there are other meals/experiences I enjoyed more on this trip), but I’m really glad we did this at least once. We both definitely felt like I made the better decisions when it came to the menu, but Luke didn’t hate the three or four mimosas he had haha (they were bottomless!).

TIW – black out day

Predicted food budget: $2631.67                                                                             Estimated Cost of this meal: $146.97                                                                     Actual Cost: $132.38                                                                               Over/Under: Under by $14.59                                                                   Remaining: $2447.37

Next meal: Homecomin’