After our Woo'ing good time on Soarin', we still had a bit of time to kill before our 7:50PM ADR at Rose & Crown Pub. We decided to hit up Figment. It was a walk on. I always doubt if this ride is open because the CM always look so uninterested and bored standing outside by the line. I enjoy Figment but it's a ride I'll only do once a trip and if I had to miss it, I wouldn't shed any tears. We kinda poked around in the Kodak lab but didn't stop to do anything and quickly exited.
We made our way over to WS. I don't remember if it was raining still, I'm thinking it wasn't. On the way over to WS, I felt something sticky on the bottom of my Croc. I stopped and looked at my foot and stuck to the bottom of my croc was one of my pins!! I couldn't believe it! I am assuming that it got stuck while I was on the plane, so I went through the majority of my day with a pin stuck into the foot of my Croc. I am so glad that it didn't go through into my foot, that would have been painful! Luckily the pin was unharmed and still tradable!
We made it to the check in at Rose & Crown and Jen asked for an outside table, we were thinking they wouldn't be open because of the weather. The nice CM said they couldn't guarantee it, especially since a lot of their seating was closed because of the weather. We took a buzzer and sat down on a bench. I think it was less than five minutes and we were being sat....on the porch type area of Rose & Crown. They had these plastic curtains rolled down to protect people from the rain. Seeing that this was my first time there, I am not sure if that is considered the outdoor seating. Do people sit "more" outside there or is that it? Maybe someone can answer that. Anyhoo, we had a lovely corner table and we were really excited.
We had a lovely waitress, she was AWESOME. Her name was Holly. She was a doll. We asked her about viewing Illuminations and she said that we could stretch out our dinner so that we could view it either from our table or outside if it wasn't raining. We were both really excited. We had been sat before our ADR time of 7:50, so we would be eating S L O W L Y.
I decided that I wanted a drink. I eyed the Welsh Dragon but it didn't sound appealing. I am pretty sure that Holly recommended the Magical Star Cocktail and that is what I decided to go with. If I remember correctly it has Passion Fruit Liquor and Coconut Rum. It was freaking delicious. It also came with a glow cube, so you can't beat that.
You can see two of the colors there. Hehehe. I made Jen try it and she liked it too. It was so delicious. The Passion Fruit really cut down the sweetness of the Coconut Rum. I highly recommend this drink. Jen had orange soda with her meal.
Jen & I took our sweet time ordering. We ordered our appetizer first. We were a bit disappointed to see that the creamy pea soup was not on the menu! It was a different soup that I can't remember but not the creamy pea soup garnished with sour cream and bacon that we had been talking about since we booked this trip! It was sad. At first we weren't going to get an appetizer but we decided to split the Cheese platter. This was a very good decision, it was DELISH. Seriously yummy. I think we ate every single thing on there except for the blood sausage samplings. Ew. I tried it and it was gross, Jen was smart enough not to try it. Everything was wonderfully paired together, not that I am cheese expert by any means but it was delicious and we both loved it.
While we were waiting for our cheese plate to be served, we went to work putting a new Mickey strap on Jen's camera, she had wanted a thicker one. I forgot that we had gone to Mousegears at some point, I think before Soarin'. It's really bad when you don't keep a Trip Journal....just so you all know. It was JAM PACKED in there. There were a lot of school groups at Disney during my entire trip. This group was like a 4th or 5th grade class. So they were little ones and they were everywhere in Mousegears. This was also when I spotted the much coveted Mickey Ice Cream Bar bag...no I didn't take a picture. I figured I would see it again! D'oh! It was $18.95 and much smaller than I thought it would be. It was like a child-sized tote bag. Much too small to be of any use to me. I left without buying anything and Jen bought her camera strap only me thinks. You will see a picture of that on Day 3.
Rose & Crown also served yummy rolls with butter but alas I forgot to take a picture of those. They were yummy and I am pretty sure we got a second bread basket delivered to our table. My only complaint about our experience was that it was quite muggy in the porch area because the plastic curtains were down and keeping out any breeze that we could have gotten but that really wasn't the Rose & Crown's fault. It wasn't bad, as the sun was setting while we were eating.
For our entrees, we both ordered the Fish & Chips. YUMMMMMMMMMMMMM! It was a delicious meal. The tartar sauce was so good, I don't know how they make it but it was really good. Of course I put some vinegar on my fish & fries as well.
We ate slowly. Well, I ate as slowly as I could. We had a couple with their daughter, I think they said she was 5 at the table across from us. They had ordered a bottle of wine with their meal and we overheard Holly say, "Here at Disney, they are very particular to what kind of corkscrew you can use." She had been struggling with opening the wine, I think the man at the table even tried at one point. She was completely blaming it on the corkscrew that Disney was making her use, she said that she wanted to bring in the one that she had at home. This whole exchange completely cracked Jen & I up, hilarious. So this was the last chapter title that I wrote down in my Trip Notebook. So everything I wrote down were chapter titles and all from the first day. Pfffft to LL.
I have no idea what time I finished, I want to say it was around 8:20 or so. Maybe a bit earlier. Originally we had told Holly that we were going to order dessert but we were completely stuffed and didn't want too anymore. Jen still had her plate and was nibbling away. We were going to stay for Illuminations, dagnabbit. Finally Jen could prolong it anymore and Holly took her plate. Holly brought our check and gave us a few options. We could stay but she glossed over that very quickly, or we could go and come back and tell them at the podium that we had eaten dinner here and watch on the porch. I didn't really want to leave, so I went to the bathroom and then Jen did. We were being really slow but there were empty tables in the restaurant so I didn't feel bad and I left Holly a big tip to compensate for tying up her table. We should have just ordered a dessert and split it but oh well.
While waiting for Illuminations one of the CM's who had been sitting guests at their tables came up to the little girl at the table across from us. The CM told her that Mickey Mouse called and that he was wondering if she would help start Illuminations. The girl was ECSTATIC. She was so freaking adorable with her excitement over starting Illuminations. It was a pure Disney Magic and I was all mushy inside over her happiness.
A little bit before Illuminations, the plastic curtains had been rolled up so people at their tables could watch and then Holly came over and escorted us down to the picnic like tables to watch. I got a front row seat right up against the barrier and Jen sat next to me on the same side. Holly also was kind enough to bring us drinks in To Go Cups! She was really awesome! Jen decided to enjoy Illuminations and I took the pictures. I regretted that I didn't have my mini tripod because the table and the barrier would have been the perfect place to set it up for steadier pictures. Oh well. You live and you learn.
I had never seen Illuminations before so I was excited that we had such great seats! (The order of my pictures have gotten a little messed up and I don't recognize the show enough so you will have to ignore if they are mixed up)
I *love* the pictures with the smoke, I think they are so pretty!
I thought Illuminations was a good show, but it's not really my cup of tea. It doesn't WOW me like Wishes, Spectromagic and Fantasmic but that is just me. I did enjoy it but it's not something I would schedule to see every trip. I couldn't believe how much smoke there was! Wowser!
We didn't see what the little girl did to start Illuminations which was a bummer but we did see her back at her table. We left Rose & Crown and thanked Holly again on our way out. Jen and I were both pretty tired at this point so we just headed to the exit in the front of the park. It was a really nice feeling knowing that we could just hop in our car and head back to the resort instead of getting in line for a bus.
I slowed down enough to take these two pictures.
Spaceship Earth is just so pretty all lit up. I tried to appreciate this since last trip I totally didn't take it in and I didn't even take a single picture of it! Very pretty. I also enjoy the light up pavement, I love those little touches.
We headed out of the park and decided to just walk to the car. This was probably not the greatest idea. It was a lot further away then we remembered, especially since we took the tram up the front when we arrived. My feet were bothering me a bit. I think I had stopped to put moleskin on at some point during the afternoon but my heel was bothering and my feet were TIRED. I knew I had to wrap them up better the next day. I think with all the rain I had walked through in my Crocs didn't help the blister situation.
We finally made it to the car, cranked up the AC and headed back to All Star Music. My luggage had been delivered, YAY! I think we both showered, I think I talked to Marc and we were in bed around 10:30pm. It had been a long day since I had been up since 3:30AM with no nap or anything!
Day 1 Highlights
Jen's Disney Moment of Day 1: Riding Spaceship Earth
Jen's Not So Disney Moment of Day 1: All the rain.
Jen's Best Food Item of Day 1: Crème Brulee from Les Chefs de France
LL's Disney Moment of Day 1: Riding Soarin' in the front row.
LL's Not So Disney Moment of Day 1: The torrential downpours of rain.
LL's Best Food Item of Day 1: Lobster Bisque from Les Chefs de France
Day 1 Total Picture Count: 157 (from both cameras)
I was going to put best and worst moments of the day but the worst sounded harsh, because I mean.....WE WERE IN DISNEY. So that is why it's called Disney Moment and Not So Disney Moment so if it doesn't make sense just think it's the best and worst....confused yet?
I think it might have something to do with the castle. 
I SO have to try R&C. Everything you got looks delish from the magic cocktail with a globe cube to the cheese plate (I wouldn't touch the blood sausage either 
), to the fish 'n chips. Your server sounds terrific. 
Darn it, I wanted to get it in September. Maybe they'll restock.
It's the perfect way to start my weekend!! 
And that cheese plate from R & C looks mah-velous! Glad you found your pin. That is so something that would happen to me.
