Greetings From England – The Brits Are Back!! **COMPLETED 07/05**

Sunday May 22nd 2011

It took no time at all to drive back to the Wilderness Lodge from Port Canaveral

We planned to have a relaxing day at the resort as Magic Kingdom had EMHs until 3am and we wanted to make the most of it

After unpacking from the Cruise we headed down to the pool for a swim and I headed over to Sturdy Branches Health Club for a Massage and then met DH for lunch at:

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DH headed over to the grill area and I headed over to the sandwich and salad counter

Everything is made fresh to order so if you time it wrong you can face a lengthy wait but if it ever looked too busy in there we would simply pop back later

Here is my lunch (well not all of it is my lunch, DH's is in the picture as well :laughing:)

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Tuna Salad Sandwich - with marinated cucumber salad

I love this sandwich

I first had this for lunch in 2010 when we were touring around the resorts to decide where to stay on this trip and I enjoyed it just as much as I did back then

It’s a very simple tuna sandwich but is wonderfully fresh and the mayo/tuna ratio is just right – a very important factor to a tuna sandwich lover :laughing:

You can chose to have homemade chips instead of the cucumber salad if you prefer

DH opted for this:

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1/3 lb. Angus Bacon Cheeseburger - with French Fries

It didn't last long so I am sure he enjoyed it

For our dessert we decided to get two items that we would be enjoy and split them

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OK, I’m not actually sure what this is called but I think it might be the legendary ‘Magic Cookie Bar’

I have heard them mentioned on other DIS dining reviews

Whatever it’s called its heaven on a plate :cloud9:

It’s packed full of yummy, chewy goodness and seems to be a mix of oats, chocolate chips, coconut and caramel

It is very, very sweet so it was a good idea to split one but we both agreed it was our best Roaring Fork’s treat so far

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Sugar Cookie

We ate this back in the room later that day and although it was good it didn’t hold a candle to the Magic Cookie Bar

Later that day we headed down to the WL boat dock and made the short and pleasant journey over to MK

The lines weren’t too bad and we had a lovely afternoon touring the park

We happened to be walking past ‘The Lunching Pad’ when I remembered there was a particular snack I wanted to try so I redeemed one of my credits for this baby

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Sweet Cream Cheese Pretzel

DH hates cream cheese and isn’t a big fan of Pretzels so I told myself I would only eat half ………… yeah right………….one bite was enough to tell me that I would be chowing down on the whole thing popcorn::

Yep, I am greedy but it was delicious, what a great use of a snack credit!

So, feeling slightly guilty about the calories I had just consumed, we continued our touring at a slightly faster pace so that I could build up my appetite for tonight’s main event

Wishes Dessert Party

There was a fairly long line when we headed over to the Tomorrowland Terrace to check in but it moved very quickly

The CM at the podium took our name, checked us off the list and gave us both a green wrist-band so that we could come and go as we pleased

At this point you get a long speech about the Wishes Dessert Party being a standing event and that people may stand at the railing in front of your table and that you were not allowed to move the chairs or tables closer to the railing

I got the impression that people were getting upset about having to stand during the fireworks and had not surprisingly thought that everyone would sit at their designated table for the entire show

I knew in advance that this wouldn’t be the case (thanks to other DIS reviews) so I totally understand why the CMs want you to be aware

Regardless of what time your ADR is for or when you check in, your table is pre-assigned and we scored a wonderful one, right on the front row directly underneath Tinkerbell's flight path :tinker:

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As soon as we had been shown to our table we wasted no time in hitting the buffet!

I grabbed a coffee and DH a coke and we filled our plates

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My first plate

The stand out for me was the chocolate dipped strawberries, they were HUGE and delicious (I headed back for many more of these)

I didn’t really care for the Key Lime Pie, it didn’t have much flavour and only the slightest hint of lime

The Vanilla Cupcake was lovely and very light

The fruit was excellent and very fresh, the pineapple was particularlty good

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My second plate – Chocolate Dipped Strawberry, Rice Crispy Treat & Mango Shooter

First prize goes to the Mango Shooter which was wonderful!

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DHs First Plate

He is a much bigger fan of fruit tarts than I am so he said these were his favourite, the cannelloni wasn't great (I agree, it was very dry) but he really enjoyed everything else

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DHs Second Plate

Following this plate DH went back for more chocolate dipped strawberries, fruit and a brownie, I think he got another of the vanilla cupcakes as he really enjoyed the first one but I don't seem to have a picture

Overall we were both really impressed with the Wishes Dessert Party and the food was plentiful and regularly re-plenished; as you get close to show time they do start to run out of the more popular items so grab your faves first

As soon as people started to head to the railing we took the few short steps from our table to watch the show

It was very cool to see Tinkerbell up close and she blew a kiss when she was directly above our heads

Just as an FYI, there is a Photopass Photographer at the Terrace so you can get some great Castle shots whilst you are there

Pumped full of sugar we headed back into the park knowing that we had five whole hours ahead of us :hyper:

The park really cleared out after the final Main Street Electrical Parade of the night and hitting the rides without any lines was a delight

Before heading back to the boat dock we met this guy ………..

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It was 2.30 in the morning :thumbsup2

Coming Up Next ……………. More Waffle About Waffles!
 
Another great review! I love it when the Magic Kingdom is open until 3am. It is so much fun to walk around a nearly empty park and hit all your favorite attractions. I would love to try the Wishes Dessert Party sometime. I love Wishes and I love dessert, so that means I would definitely love the Wishes Dessert Party, right? :laughing:
 
Those desserts look soooo good! I really, really want to do to that dessert party, but at least according to the website you can only make a reservation for like the next month. I'm hoping they add September soon...
 


Can't believe I have only just spotted these reviews Linda. Thanks for the cruise food reviews. The Dream sounds wonderful. I am really excited for our 7-night Eastern this October but have been constantly second-guessing our decision to do East instead of West so can't wait to hear what you think of the Western. And I always have the Route 66 breakfast on our last morning - it helps to lessen the sadness of having to get off the ship.

The Fireworks Dessert party looks great. I agree, those strawberries are HUGE!
 
Really interested to hear about the Wishes Dessert Party - my parents in law are going in August.

I get the feeling some people might be peeved of having their view blocked by people standing at the railings! There have obviously been some complaints!

I know it's off topic but did you go back to the same room after your cruise? I don't know how these things work - if you just leave your Disney room empty whilst you cruise or if you have 2 separate bookings?

Can't wait for more!:lovestruc
 
Really enjoying your reviews! Can't wait to read more!

Thanks for reading along, I'm pleased you are enjoying them :goodvibes

Another great review! I love it when the Magic Kingdom is open until 3am. It is so much fun to walk around a nearly empty park and hit all your favorite attractions. I would love to try the Wishes Dessert Party sometime. I love Wishes and I love dessert, so that means I would definitely love the Wishes Dessert Party, right? :laughing:

It was really cool walking through the park at 2am :thumbsup2
I think we can safely say that you would love the Wishes Dessert Party :laughing:

Those desserts look soooo good! I really, really want to do to that dessert party, but at least according to the website you can only make a reservation for like the next month. I'm hoping they add September soon...

I remember that when we made our ADR the booking window opened about 2 or 3 months ahead of time, I'm not sure why you can't book at 180 days :confused3

Can't believe I have only just spotted these reviews Linda. Thanks for the cruise food reviews. The Dream sounds wonderful. I am really excited for our 7-night Eastern this October but have been constantly second-guessing our decision to do East instead of West so can't wait to hear what you think of the Western. And I always have the Route 66 breakfast on our last morning - it helps to lessen the sadness of having to get off the ship.

The Fireworks Dessert party looks great. I agree, those strawberries are HUGE!

Hey Joh, great to have you reading along :goodvibes
I couldn't decide between the Eastern or Western so DH made the final decision, gotta let him have control at some point in his life huh? :lmao:

Really interested to hear about the Wishes Dessert Party - my parents in law are going in August.

I get the feeling some people might be peeved of having their view blocked by people standing at the railings! There have obviously been some complaints!

I know it's off topic but did you go back to the same room after your cruise? I don't know how these things work - if you just leave your Disney room empty whilst you cruise or if you have 2 separate bookings?

Can't wait for more!:lovestruc

Morning Shari :goodvibes
We actually kept our room for the full two weeks and just let the front desk know that we wouldn't be using it for three days.
It was a good way of doing it as we could leave most of our stuff in our room and just pack for three days
The downside of course is that you are paying for a room you aren't using but we had free dining for the whole trip which we would have lost if we had split the stay and we got a free room upgrade when we arrived so it all worked out great :thumbsup2
 


Monday May 23rd 2011

Today we were very excited as we had been selected to be the ‘Flag Family’ at Wilderness Lodge :woohoo:

We met Ranger Jack in the lobby at 8.15am after a much needed coffee following our late night

Let me just say that the views from the roof of Wilderness Lodge are spectacular, you can see Cinderella Castle, Spaceship Earth, Tower Of Terror and The Tree Of Life as part of a wonderful 360 degree view :cloud9:

It was an honour to raise the five flags and something we will never ever forget

Sorry I am waffling ……………….. Which brings me nicely onto (insert drum roll here)

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Strawberry And Orange Whipped Cream Waffles

Have you ever seen a prettier breakfast?

DH talked me into splitting these Argh :sad2:, I kept jabbing him in the hand with my fork they were sooooo good

I asked for the bacon to be plated separately so that it didn’t go near MY, YES MY waffles but DH didn’t pay the bacon much attention and instead dived into the truly wonderful plate of Mickey head delights

Strawberries 10 out of 10, Orange infused Whipped Cream 10 out of 10

Can you tell I liked this?

Anyway, I had a date with a horse at Fort Wilderness, hey ya gotta take what you can get to my age :lmao:, so we hired out a couple of bikes from the rental hut and cycled over to the Tri Circle Ranch ……….. See; I am working off those calories!

After a very enjoyable trek we jumped back on our bikes (yeah great idea to get onto a bike after an hour in the saddle :eek:) and headed back to Roaring Forks for lunch

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Cheese Flatbread & Side Salad

We both had the same lunch so only one photo

Yet again we were mighty impressed with the quality of food here. It was hot fresh and prepared to order and we both really enjoyed our lunch

Ooh and we shared one of these again

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Magic Cookie Bar …………. Mmmmmmm

The afternoon was spent lounging by the pool and I may have had one or two of these

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Grand Margarita

DH tells me that it is socially unacceptable in today's socitey to fill a 4GB Memory Card with photos of Cocktails so I will probably leave it at that for today :rolleyes1

Coming Up Next – Dinner At Yachtsman Steakhouse
 
That was our favorite waffle too! The orange whipped cream was so delicious. And I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on Yachtsman, we just had dinner there tonight for the first time in years.
 
Yum, waffles :thumbsup2

I love the flatbreads at Roaring Fork - they are really delicious and make a change from normal CS pizza.
 
I'm craving waffly goodness right now!

WL is looking like a really good place to stay - a different waffle plate every morning!

Only one cocktail? You are slipping!:lmao:
 
Those waffles do look fantastic - I never would have agreed to share!! :rotfl:

I think it's totally fine to fill the card with pictures of drinks. And waffles. And desserts. Hey, those are some of the best parts of vacation! :thumbsup2
 
Those desserts look soooo good! I really, really want to do to that dessert party, but at least according to the website you can only make a reservation for like the next month. I'm hoping they add September soon...

For some reason, you can make them via telephone before you can online. I finally gave up and called them myself for our reservations on August 31st.
 
We have not done the dessert party before.

Do you see better than standing somewhere else?

We have dinner reservations for Aug 22 at 5:50pm at Tony's, would we make it by 8pm for a 9 show?
 
I just love all of your reviews! Are you doing a trip report, too, by any chance?
I was excited to read about the dessert party as we are doing this one in August. Now I have to check and see if it's on an EMH night. A day to swim and nap at the hotel and a night of sweets and an almost-empty MK sound wonderful!

Thank you for taking the time to post!!!
 
Hi Linda,

I am back - sorry for the lack of posts, but my computer didn't want to cooperate too much and on top of that I had lots of exams to look through.

Now on to the food! :lmao:

The dessert party is fun, isn't it .... and we have always found plenty of sweets - looks like you did too! :thumbsup2

Plus it looks like we will have to stop by WL one day to try some of those waffles ........ yum, yum, yum! ;)

Love the flatbread at RF too, can't wait for Yachtsman and find out what we are missing AGAIN! I cancelled it AGAIN!!!!!!!! :rotfl2:
 
I can't wait to book the Wishes Dessert Party for our trip - your pics had me drooling! :laughing:

The waffles at WL also look very yummy!
 
Ok those waffles look fabulous! We are staying at WL on our next visit and I have a feeling I will be eating quite a few of those. Thanks for the reviews!
 
I remember that when we made our ADR the booking window opened about 2 or 3 months ahead of time, I'm not sure why you can't book at 180 days :confused3

Yeah, that's what I've heard. I'm only concerned because looking at the website, they haven't even opened reservations for August yet... so if you were going the first week in August, that's only a little more than a month away and they still haven't put it up! I can't imagine they would stop doing it though, so I'll just have to keep stalking the website!

And those waffles sound sooo good. I'm actually not really much of a waffle person, but with the strawberries and orange that is something I would probably enjoy!
 

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