ONE LAST HURRAH | a nov 2015 tr

Sam33 · Nov 19, 2015

There comes a time in a young couple’s life where they feel the need to pass their genes on. And when that time comes, there are several things they must do to prepare. Most importantly, the last Disney Trip without the responsibility of caring for a child and the financial constraints that accompany them. THIS. Is that trip.

There was a fancy hotel and good food and alcohol that we’ll never be able to responsibly afford after children! Not to mention the crazy amount of thrill rides to put in the bank for when we are riding Dumbo 15 times in a row. Now, my mom always tells me “if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans”. Meaning this may not be our last trip without kids because who the heck knows! But that was our mindset heading into this trip. It was our “One Last Hurrah” of being free from responsibility.

Now, don’t go thinking this was some boring, relaxing sit around all day kind of trip just because we are adults with no kids. Rest assured we jammed in as many rides as the crowds would allow (and it was CROWDED!). Somehow even found time to ride Nemo FOUR TIMES. :upsidedow

Who are we?

My Husband, Casey, is 26 and manages the tap room at a nearby brewery (4 Noses in Broomfield, CO check it out!). He’s been to the World three times, once as a youth, once in College when we were dating (my first trip!) and our honeymoon. He loves Disney but also likes to go other places. Our vacation budget usually goes elsewhere but he promised me one last trip before we had kids and then we could go back with children. He loves Star Wars

-side note-you see this shirt a lot. He has several and he packed them all. He's not actually wearing the same shirt everyday :scared:

I am Sam. I do quality control for a local fast food chain and since it’s not quite full time I also work a couple days a week at Barnes & Nobles. I turned 27 on this trip and it will be my 5th trip! Once while dating my husband, our honeymoon and the last two trips were with my dear old mom. I LOVE the Muppets and Disney history. I'm also love Disney music. Specifically right now, I'm into Pixar scores (nothing gets me through rush hour like the Finding Nemo Theme!)

We are from the Denver area and are obnoxiously Colorado Proud. We are DIE HARD Avalanche fans and huge Broncos fans as well. We are very into craft beer (I don’t drink it much, especially on vacation, as it makes me sick) and fancy whiskey/scotch and love enjoying the mountains via hiking and snowboarding.

Hope you’ll join me here on the recap of our 7 night stay at the Yacht Club for Food & Wine (11/11-11/18)!

Our adventure starts the day before we leave and we almost didn’t make it. Luckily, you guys know we eventually made it to Florida! Something I wouldn’t believe until we were there. Also we somehow end up with a dog by the end of the trip, so stay tuned!

NPRinLA · Nov 20, 2015

Following along! :wave:

I'm curious to hear what you thought about the YC. I'll be staying there for the first time in January!

Sam33 · Nov 20, 2015

NPRinLA said:
Following along! I'm curious to hear what you thought about the YC. I'll be staying there for the first time in January!

Spoiler: WE LOVED IT! I can only think of one minor thing that was negative that I'll get to. But it was perfect! Hopefully you have good weather, the pool was amazing and we don't usually take time to swim on WDW vacations.

Sam33 · Nov 20, 2015

Time to get that pre-trip/arrival post out of the way. And unfortunately, it comes with some drama :crazy2:

"The time is [Nov 10th], on a [morning] very much like the one we have just witnessed." You know that day before you leave for a trip that has been booked since the very day it could possibly be booked? With flights booked the day Southwest released your dates? The trip that has been in the making for 4 years when your husband said on your Disney honeymoon "1 more trip before we have kids"? It brings an unprecedented level of trip anticipation and the 8 hours of work I had ahead of me were pure agony. The plan was darting home after work to grab the suitcases and head to my parents' house (4:00 AM wake up call and they're 20 minutes closer to the airport, that would be a very valuable 20 minutes of extra sleep!). Casey would come straight over after closing the brewery and I would hopefully be asleep by then. Foolproof.
Now, one of my biggest pet peeves is people that move to Colorado and then constantly complain about the snow. It's Colorado, what are you expecting? I myself had been hoping for snow since October 1st rolled around. OF COURSE, the first predicted snow storm of the season was now being forecast for the eve/morning of my highly anticipated trip. As I watched the predicted accumulation numbers rise and started to feel dread but my dad assured me there was "nothing to worry about" with this storm. It "probably wouldn't even stick to the road" he says.
3PM rolls around. My last break and only 2 hours left of work :flower:

And then I get the e-mail. The WORST e-mail you can get that isn't related to the health of a family member or your house catching on fire. "FLIGHT CANCELED"
Straight up CANCELED.
No joke, I started to cry. Right there in the break room. My managers that shift were very close with me so they understood how much time and effort had been put into my trip. One was a huge Disney-fan himself and we had talked all day about how non-Disney people just don't get it. Disney-Trip anticipation is so different than other trip anticipation! They were very understanding and allowed me to have my cell phone out on the sales floor while we tried to take care of this. I called my husband who has a job he can break from to call the airlines and anxiously awaited news.
I kid you not, there were at LEAST 5 customers in Mickey Mouse shirts the last hour and a half of my shift. Literally. And I don't use that term lightly.
I get an email saying our flights are now for 8:30 that night. Can't be right. We would never make it. Turns out he got disconnected while trying to get on the 2PM flight the next day. This would have us landing at 8PM. So our entire Food & Wine day would be gone. But at least we would get there.
Next update: Because of the disconnection, 2PM flight was now full. Next option: 11AM with a layover in Dallas, get to Disney at 8PM. TOO LATE. Only one seat left now
Next update: I fly out on the 11AM with the layover and get there and checked in. He can't get there until 1:30AM. And that's landing time, not getting to Disney time. But it was our last option.
Next update: Why don't we try another airline? DUH. Unfortunately we booked using points on Southwest, so any non-Southwest flight would be a large added expense to an already expensive trip. We found a decent United flight and decided that it was worth the money. We would be salvaging ALMOST our entire first day and the expensive hotel wouldn't be going to waste by arriving at 2AM. It was leaving at 6AM with an uncomfortably short layover in Houston. We would land in Orlando only an hour after originally planned. The trip was saved!

After a momentary sigh of relief I started to get nervous again. If our other flight was canceled, what's to stop this one from being canceled as well? I am an anxious person in general so that "nigh-before-Disney" feeling was non-existent. Instead, it was the feeling of impending doom.
I stopped by the brewery to get some final details from Casey and had a couple of beers and then headed to my parents. I attempted to go to sleep on time but laid there waiting for the "canceled" or "delayed" email and finally drifted off.

I woke up at 3AM to "The Circle of Life" alarm on my phone (easily the best song to wake up to!) and it woke Casey up to. He wasn't expecting it and it freaked him out. It was hilarious until I realized the morning that lay ahead of me. Casey checked the flight status.
"on time"
I wouldn't believe it. I just did not have that "I'm going to Disney today!" feeling.
We left pretty early because the weather looked AWFUL. There was at least 4 inches of slush on the road. And it was SLUSH not nice fluffy snow. Driving to the airport was awful. Denver airport is in the middle of nowhere and they always get the worst weather. There was hardly anyone driving, though. So that was nice. We creeped and crawled our way there, passing a couple of bad accidents near the airport and got dropped off.

Flight was still on time and we made our way through security. It was dead there. It wasn't quite 5AM yet and NOTHING was open. Not to mention, we never fly United so we didn't realize how little there was to eat near their concourse (they have all of B to themselves). McDonald's wasn't even open yet. Casey sat at the gate and I got in line, anticipating McDonald's would open at 5. Casey got some sort of McSauage McMuffin Mcfat crap and I don't like their breakfast and settled for a hasbrown. I was too nervous to be hungry anyway. We boarded at the normal time and the flight was probably only half full. I bet a lot of people didn't plan for the drive. I still didn't believe we were going to be taking off on time... Still lacked that "we're going to Disney!" feeling.
We start to taxi and I start to get excited. Then we stop for the de-icing process. Pilot says it will take ~15 minutes. No problem! Still plenty of time.
LIAR! Took 40 minutes and I was freaking out. We already had very little time for our connection and dread set in. I would be anxious the entire plane ride.
We eventually made it to Houston and we had 10 minutes until boarding. Luckily we were only a few gates away. They made the announcement to wait until people with connections had gotten off the plane but of course no one did. We speed-walked over to our gate and made it with a couple minutes to spare so we grabbed some chips from the little store by our gate and got in the boarding line. Too close for comfort but I was finally getting excited! All the obstacles were out of the way and we were headed to Disney World. And Houston weather was perfect so no worries there. We weren't able to sit by each other since we booked so late but I got Economy Plus and the leg-room was spectacular.
WE WERE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD. 2 more hours of flight. Gah!
I couldn't believe it!
We landed around 2PM instead of the 12:50 we would have originally landed at. No big deal. Better than the middle of the night! I practically ran to the Magic Express line and once there, I was finally able to breathe. We made it!

We had to sit on the bus for about 15 minutes but nothing could phase me at that point. Got a text that said to come to the front desk instead of a text with a room number. This had me nervous. I knew they were full to capacity and that I had done on-line check in properly. I started to worry they over-booked and would have to move us and I REALLY wanted to stay at Yacht Club. We were also the last stop. OF COURSE. Stops at Caribbean Beach, Boardwalk, Beach Club and FINALLY Yacht Club. And it was beautiful. We were greeted as we got off the bus and taken to the front desk. Turns out, they had no credit card on file (I know I put one, but oh well). Our room was ready and we were able to run up and head off to Epcot!

Next up: Casey rides the new Test Track for the first time and we Food and Wine it up!

Sam33 · Nov 25, 2015

Time to get to the meat and potatoes of this trip report. No more crying and travel stress and anxiety and wondering if I would ever get to my favorite place in the world, my raison d'etre, the reason I have a job and desire to make money: Disney Parks.
We spent roughly 30 seconds in the room. About how long it took to snap a couple pictures and drop off our carry-ons. And then WE WERE OFF. The man at the front desk directed us to a short cut using his cartoon map. And we could not figure it out. We finally found the elevator and the child on the first floor was about as excited to get on the elevator as I was to get off it and we nearly collided. After finding several exits, all with fencing keeping us in sight of the walk-way but also keeping us from it, we gave up and found our way back to the lobby. This problem would persist all trip and we would eventually give up and use the lobby entrance every time.
I feel like I practically ran to Epcot but Casey evidently did not as he was able to take pictures

Slide

We finally made it to International Gateway (I say finally as if it took a long time, in reality it was roughly 2 minutes but everything seemed like forever at that point)
Magic Bands worked and we were home! The plan for the night was Food & Wine for lunch and dinner (although, it was already 3PM, we had yet to eat lunch), use our fast passes for Spaceship Earth and Test Track (we had already missed our Nemo one from the flight fiasco) and then watch Illuminations.
It was crowded. I'm glad I had been anticipating crowds for months now because we were prepared! First stop: France Booth. The line was long but I remembered from two trips ago how quick they moved and we went ahead and joined it.
We got the "Croissant aux escargots with garlic and parsley" and "Boeuf bourguignon — Braised short ribs in cabernet with mashed potatoes" (also I got the martini slush, because why not!)

They didn't look good. All the talking up of the Food & Wine Festival to get my husband excited about Disney and it looked like booth #1 was a flop. But boy did they taste good. The Croissant was light and flakey and the sauce on top was awesome. The escargot was tucked inside it and you could actually taste them unlike a couple years ago where it was basically just buttery bread with something slightly chewy on the inside. The beef was okay. It was beef and mashed potatoes and it tasted good but not AMAZING. The cocktail was great of course. Hard to mess that up. A bit sweet but when you're only having one, it works! SUCCESS.
We headed towards Great Britain with the plan of lunching to Future World and then starting Dinner on the other side.
NEXT STOP: IRELAND
We got the "Lobster-Seafood fisherman's pie" and "Kerrygold cheese selection: Reserve Cheddar, Dubliner with Irish Stout, Skellig"

I didn't taste the fisherman's pie so you'll have to take Casey's word for it- "mmm good". He's the least picky person in the world, though. So take that as you will. I really enjoyed the cheese selection. I didn't eat the chutney/jam time stuff because I MOSTLY don't like sweet stuff on cheese. It was A LOT of cheese. I couldn't finish it. I found it to be a pretty good value. It was a meal's worth of cheese! Looks like Casey also grabbed a beer. I assume it was the "kilkenny" because that's the only beer listed on the on-line menu!
We were already starting to get full. Which was a bummer because we had only done two booths! I was stumped. When I came with my mom I feel like we did so many booths and we both eat less than Casey! We fit one last booth in before ride time: CANADA (I love Canada, btw. Went to Toronto this summer and it was amazing. Plus they gave us hockey so they win)

We went with the "Canadian Cheese Soup" and "Chicken sausage with creamy polenta and Minus 8 onion jam". Casey also got a Moosehead Lager. We skipped the filet. I didn't really enjoy it last time. We are rare-medium rare beef people and getting a potentially over-cooked piece of beef for that price wasn't appealing to us. Casey LOVED the sausage. I found it a tad spicy for my taste but the flavor was good. And of course, the cheese soup was great. Did anyone question that one?

We were STUFFED. So full. It didn't make sense, but that's life. It was time for our Spaceship Earth fast pass. Confession: this was my fifth trip to Disney and I would be riding this classic for the first time. Crazy, I know. But that's what I love about Disney. Always something new!

Despite how busy it seemed in World Showcase, it was a walk on. Didn't need a fast pass. Oh well! It was an OK ride. LOVE the part at the end with the faces. Casey made a GREAT face and I wasn't expecting it. The entire future sequence had us laughing so hard! I wish I would have taken a picture but I didn't feel like fishing out my camera. So worth riding it again for that part!
We had a bit of time to kill so we headed over to the festival center! And we found beer!

It was a GREAT deal. Decent sized taster and it was only $2! Casey said the Founder's Mosaic was REALLY amazing but he was disappointed in the Boulevard sour. As in really didn't like it-disappointed. And he loves sours and was so excited to find one! We also picked up a bottle of "Mmmhop", Hanson's beer. Every time the guys at the brewery go somewhere they bring back a really good beer you can't get here so Casey decided to return the favor as a joke. FYI, we tasted it later in the week and it is not good. Not good at all. But it's hilarious so it makes a great gift and we thought the guys at the brewery would get a kick out of it!
We also checked out the chocolate sculptures in the Ghiradelli area.

Up next: Test Track, Tequila, Dinner!

Aimros · Nov 25, 2015

Subbing! One Last Hurrah trip on the horizon for us, too! :thumbsup2

glennbo123 · Nov 25, 2015

Sam! You should've yelled that you had started this baby.

Sounded like a stressful trip but I'm glad that you got there relatively close to the original planned time. I can't believe you had never been on Spaceship Earth before. Sounds like you're enjoying the food and beers of F&W.

Looking forward to more!

MidnightParade · Nov 26, 2015

Saying hi! Following along! What a rough start to the trip! I would have been like you and just not feeling it until you got past all the things that could delay you!

Can't wait to see how you end up with a dog too!

Sam33 · Nov 27, 2015

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving! We spent the day at my parents' house hoping our new pup wouldn't eat they're cats. (Cats lived)

Aimros said:
Subbing! One Last Hurrah trip on the horizon for us, too!

Welcome! You know you're almost ready when all the children (even the criers!) are cute to the both of you! It was a strange trip in that respect haha

glennbo123 said:
Sam! You should've yelled that you had started this baby.

Sounded like a stressful trip but I'm glad that you got there relatively close to the original planned time. I can't believe you had never been on Spaceship Earth before. Sounds like you're enjoying the food and beers of F&W.

Looking forward to more!

I soooo almost sent you a message and then got lazy and thought "ehhh, he'll find it!" :groom:

Disboards is SO SLOW on my computer sometimes which makes me extra lazy!
I have planned to do Spaceship Earth the last three trips and it never happens haha. CRAZY. Meanwhile, my brother who hates Disney and has spent ONE day in WDW has been on it.

MidnightParade said:
Saying hi! Following along! What a rough start to the trip! I would have been like you and just not feeling it until you got past all the things that could delay you!

Can't wait to see how you end up with a dog too!

Welcome! I cried so much my over-emotional mom who made me who I am even made fun of me haha. But what's important is we made it and the blizzard on the way home was the day BEFORE instead of the morning of!

Sam33 · Nov 27, 2015

Our mulling around the Festival Center killed time perfectly. It was time for our Test Track Fast Pass!
Casey kept annoyingly calling it "Fast Track" and after voicing my annoyance upped the ante by saying he had a "Test Pass for Fast Track". This would continue for some time. Basically every time I was irritated he'd decide to talk about our first night. :scared:

He's going to be a good dad....

We made it to Test Track with perfect timing. We pretty much got to every ride we fast passed 5 minutes before to 5 minutes after our designated time. I am painfully punctual.

We walked right into the car design area and I decided to let Casey do his thing. I had done the new version last trip and he hadn't been there in over 4 years. Plus, I thought he'd really enjoy it. We started out making what looked to be a cool car and then he started to slip off the deep end and we ended up with something ridiculous :flower1:

It somehow was the best in the car in several categories :yay:

Casey loved the new version. He loves Tron so thought the slight resemblance to that franchise was "neat". He's incredibly easy to please, though.
The plan after this was to start eating dinner but we were still stuffed. I have no idea how I could have misjudged our appetites this bad but we sampled half the booths I initially planned haha. To give us more time to digest we headed to the Nemo ride. It's one of my favorites and I finally noticed the queue! I totally missed the whole starting out on the beach and going under water. That's what happens when it's busy and there's actually a line! We didn't stop to look around the aquariums at all, which was weird for me but oh well, we had 6 more days there!
We were starting to get exhausted. Waking up at 3AM will do that to you. So we decided to move on to dinner despite our full bellies.

Night fell FAST. I love it. Some people hate that about winter but night time is awesome.
We stopped at the Sustainable food booth and the Chew Lab, located between The Land and World Showcase. I really wanted to try the steak and had initially also wanted to try the dessert there, but we settled on just the steak.
While I was grabbing the steak, Casey was getting beer. He saw that they were selling Founder's Kolsch there and he wanted to try it since they don't distribute to Colorado.

It was SO PRETTY. Also delicious. But mostly pretty. I met Casey at the table and he had a stupid face on and no beer. He forgot the PIN (we were charging everything to Magic Bands) and instead of grabbing me, he kept trying until he was locked out! *sigh* MEN. We ate the steak and I went back through the line to use my band to buy the beer. Luckily, it worked and he didn't lock us both out. Forgiven :love2:

This is what he looks like when he makes mistakes haha! It's hard to be mad at that face, which is lucky for him.
The Scotland booth wasn't far from The Chew and I had heard great things about the scallop.

I was disappointed. It was very chewy and the bacon wasn't as crispy as I was expecting. It was like a whole chewy mess. Flavors were okay but I didn't like the textures. The beer in the picture was Innis & Gunn on cask and it was phenomenal. We both really enjoyed it (I had to get a little sip off it, it looked too good!)

I was REALLY slowing down at this point. We decided Illuminations was out at this point. We had AT LEAST two other opportunities the rest of the trip and if we wanted we could even come other nights (a major reason we loved the Epcot area resorts!). We love La Cava so we headed that way and decided to make our way to the exit after that.
The line was SO LONG and the menu for the bar line didn't have the avocado! I got irritated and said "let's just go, we'll come another time" and Casey, being the level-headed genius he is, says "why don't we ask the host how long for a table?"
Fiiiiine. There was a table available RIGHT THEN. Take that suckers in line! We sat down and checked out the menu. JUST IN CASE there was something better than the avocado margarita (there wasn't)

Stoic.

There was one waitress for all the tables and the poor thing was frazzled. Didn't help that there was a huge table of loud annoying people there. They were very demanding and my 3AM-wake-up-self did not appreciate it haha.

Our margaritas came quickly, regardless. The sitting and chilling helped so much and the margaritas were spot on. We have tried to replicate the avocado one at home and come close but they're still a little off so I always look forward to coming here. Casey got a weird one that's not on the on-line menu. It was gross but he liked it. It had a tajin rim. I didn't recognize anything in it so I didn't remember and I planned on grabbing it off the on-line menu and it's not there :guilty:

Just like the line for margaritas, the line for 3 Caballeros was LONG at first but after our margaritas it was adequate. Still a couple minutes of line but nothing ridiculous. Plus, the little boy behind us in line and on the ride was ADORABLE. Super obsessed with Donald but he spoke Spanish so he seemed to extra love this ride. He made the ride, basically. I wanted to take him home along with pretty much all the other children there haha.
We started to head back to the hotel and snapped some pictures along the way (also stopped to watch a bit of the acrobats, perfect timing)

We had to stop by the front desk to reset Casey's magic band and got a GREAT cast member. She was from Australia and said she was giving us "pixie dust" when she was using her device to fix our bands. So cute! We took a couple pictures of the lobby and headed to bed. It was 8:30 haha. We were POOPED

Shortly after we heard all sorts of noise. Then we realized it was the fireworks! After initially thinking the room was too noisy, we opened the door and were impressed with how well the door kept the noise out. Those fireworks were LOUD. We fell asleep FAST after that. Which was good because we had an early day. It was our first morning in Disney World and all the anticipation I missed out on the night before because of flight anxiety was building up for our Magic Kingdom morning! Which is what's next

v3rs3 · Nov 28, 2015

Booooooooooooo... Avs... I feel like I've went to more Avs games here in Columbus than any other team. Booing Adam Foote was one of my favorite pastimes, although booing Jeff Carter has kind of taken the torch away.

Come to think of it, the last Reds game we went to was vs Colorado

Looks like a great trip. We also are waking up about 3AM, which is about 12 hours from now to head to the world. Super excited. I hope one day to get a childless trip, but I enjoy making the memories while I can.

Sam33 · Nov 28, 2015

v3rs3 said:
Booooooooooooo... Avs... I feel like I've went to more Avs games here in Columbus than any other team. Booing Adam Foote was one of my favorite pastimes, although booing Jeff Carter has kind of taken the torch away.

Come to think of it, the last Reds game we went to was vs Colorado

Looks like a great trip. We also are waking up about 3AM, which is about 12 hours from now to head to the world. Super excited. I hope one day to get a childless trip, but I enjoy making the memories while I can.

Lol! That's funny because one of my favorite avs moments was when we traded back for Foote and he came back half way through the game. AND his last game in the NHL was one of my all-time favorite games to be at live! How funny! You might not like the rest of this as I believe 3 of our 6 days I'm wearing my Avs stuff

Have a great trip! It's amazing how long you can last after waking up at 3AM as long as you're at Disney World!

glennbo123 · Nov 28, 2015

Some really nice pictures in that last installment Sam. (I'm reading on my phone so it's too hard to quote.)

I poked my head into La Cava last trip but didn't get anything because the line was so long.

glennbo123 · Nov 28, 2015

Sam33 said:
I soooo almost sent you a message and then got lazy and thought "ehhh, he'll find it!" Disboards is SO SLOW on my computer sometimes which makes me extra lazy!

No worries...you were right, I did!

TheMaxRebo · Nov 28, 2015

Joining in! As a parent to 3 I can tell you that you just have to re-work the budget steering more towards alcohol

Totally jealous of your husband's job - I write a beer blog and home brew but would love to work in the industry

Wow, I would been so anxious with the weather Andy he flight getting cancelled- glad you figured something that work and got in not too much later than original plans. Also glad no issue with your room at the end.

Founders Mosaic is definitely a solid beer. For Boulevard I've been fairly underwhelmed with most things other than the Tank 7. And the Inuss and Dunn they have is pretty tremendous.

Love la Cava - glad things worked to get the table. Love the avocado but also often get the jalapeño or the horchata

Definitely seems like a full day so early night totally makes sense

Enjoying the report so far!

Sam33 · Nov 29, 2015

glennbo123 said:
Some really nice pictures in that last installment Sam. (I'm reading on my phone so it's too hard to quote.)

I poked my head into La Cava last trip but didn't get anything because the line was so long.

Thanks! Casey's phone takes AMAZING pictures (he only took a few, though) and we realized my iPhone takes better pictures than my digital camera so it's pretty much all phone pictures. It was convenient because all I had to do was get the Photobucket app and it would automatically sync with my phone. Came home and all my pictures were on Photobucket already! Last trip it took FOUR HOURS to upload everything.

Yeah, the lines get crazy long. We got lucky this time with the table. Usually I try and plan to get there at noon when they open (like a booze rope drop!) Hopefully you make it in someday. Great margaritas. Like, actual quality instead of the sugar bombs they sell outside!

TheMaxRebo said:
Joining in! As a parent to 3 I can tell you that you just have to re-work the budget steering more towards alcohol

Totally jealous of your husband's job - I write a beer blog and home brew but would love to work in the industry

Wow, I would been so anxious with the weather Andy he flight getting cancelled- glad you figured something that work and got in not too much later than original plans. Also glad no issue with your room at the end.

Founders Mosaic is definitely a solid beer. For Boulevard I've been fairly underwhelmed with most things other than the Tank 7. And the Inuss and Dunn they have is pretty tremendous.

Love la Cava - glad things worked to get the table. Love the avocado but also often get the jalapeño or the horchata

Definitely seems like a full day so early night totally makes sense

Enjoying the report so far!

Welcome!

He's LOVING this job. He's only been at it for 4-5 months but it's been awesome. He used to work for a small sit-down chain in the area and he was in charge of the bar so he got to pick the tap-list which was pretty awesome! But they grew too fast and he kept getting stuck managing instead of doing bar and marketing stuff like he was promised. The brewery is so close to our house so we were there ALL THE TIME and he had their beer on tap at the restaurants. So we lucked out and they offered him a job. It's such a hard industry to get into here! He tried a couple years ago just to get hired on to can and do hard labor at Upslope (in Boulder) and they had over 100 applicants!

And I agree about Boulevard. I think it's so popular because up until recently there wasn't much coming out of that area of the country in terms of craft beer.

My husband almost went with the Jalapeno, I think that's what he got last time he was there. He's a big fan. Don't think either of us has tried the horchata, though! I have a hard time getting anything but the avocado! I always think about it haha. I really wish I remembered what he ordered. It was so weird.

Sam33 · Nov 30, 2015

The alarm went off around 6:30 if I remember correctly (I probably don't). I let Casey sleep a bit while I showered and we hurried down to the Ale & Compass Lounge in the lobby for breakfast. Yacht Club doesn't have a quick service food court like most of the other resorts but we didn't find it to be a problem. The one time we did eat lunch at the resort we used Hurricane Hannah's at the pool and we found Ale & Compass very fulfilling for breakfast.
Ale & Compass looks almost like a living room. There were two small tables and a couch and a couple of lounge-y chairs. We had a bit of spare time before having to get to the bus stop so we decided we'd sit and eat instead of getting something to go. I got a croissant and a plain latte and Casey got the croissant sandwich special and a black coffee.
We grabbed the chairs by the fireplace as we were informed the sandwich could take up to 10 minutes to make.
There was a tiny statue of a man instead of the fireplace which I found HILARIOUS.

Look at this stud! And yes, that is another Four Noses shirt. That's pretty much all he wore.

The sandwich arrived pretty quickly (not near the 10 minutes we were warned)

He enjoyed it. It had veggies I think and basically an omelet on a multi-grain croissant. It looks boring in this picture but it was pretty good. the woman changing the trash out asked if he would like some hot sauce and he said yes. And she brought these!

Hilarious! He isn't a huge tabasco fan so we kept the extra she brought to bring my BFF. He loves hot sauce and we figured he would get a kick out of this.

The bus stop was empty which I took as a good sign. But then I realized I was wrong. We must have JUST missed a Magic Kingdom bus. It quickly started to fill up and it took almost the full 20 minutes to get a bus. We were waiting next to this super entitled family and they were just THE WORST. They arrived about 5-7 minutes after we did and complained the entire time. And then the bus came and the walked right up to the front of the line despite the fact that MANY people were there before them. Then they sat down and continued to complain about having to stop at the Beach Club. So aggravating. There were so many people at the Beach Club stop we could only fit about 10% of them on our bus

Now THOSE people have a reason to complain. Not the entitled lady sitting nicely on the bus ignoring everyone else around her.
We finally pulled up to the Magic Kingdom. I was surprised how long the ride seemed to be. everyone complains about Animal Kingdom buses but this one really felt longer. I wanted to get there around 8:15 and we pulled in around 8:30. Not great but oh well. It was PACKED. It was also parade taping that day. Since there was a Christmas party that night it was supposed to be a low-crowd morning and it did not appear to be that. We were barely through the turnstiles. Snapped some pictures, watched the welcome show and then headed in to the park with the hoards of people!

We headed to Frontierland, passing the parade taping on the way. Some R&B guy was singing on the stage and they had roped off an audience. It was someone I recognized by name when I checked it later but i no longer remember who it was

We made it onto the first train at Big Thunder Mountain and grabbed a picture for proof. Although, this really shows no proof

Selfie on the train

I'm going to cut this update a bit short, my computer is being unbearably super slow and the Avs game is starting!

glennbo123 · Nov 30, 2015

So irritating to run into those types of people who only think of themselves and unfortunately there are plenty of them.

Yes, the bus rides at some of the resorts that share a bus route can be really long sometimes. I still prefer it over driving though.

Sam33 · Dec 1, 2015

glennbo123 said:
So irritating to run into those types of people who only think of themselves and unfortunately there are plenty of them.

Yes, the bus rides at some of the resorts that share a bus route can be really long sometimes. I still prefer it over driving though.

We had an exceptional amount of whiners this trip! Just crazy things that are so silly to whine about. Always makes me feel bad about the kids with them that would have no idea anything was wrong if the parents just kept it between themselves. Wait until the poor little girl at the table next to us at Kona...
And I don't think I'd ever drive in Disney! I would much rather have to wait in line and stand on a bus than have to drive around! I love passing all the cars at the gates waiting in line to pay for parking and then the traffic exiting the park. Even if I have to stand in an arm pit

Accident · Dec 1, 2015

Sam33 said:
the last Disney Trip without the responsibility of caring for a child and the financial constraints that accompany them. THIS. Is that trip.

Congrats on the trip and expecting! In a couple blinks of the eye you'll be trying to figure out where it all went when the little one(s) are suddenly taking you to disney as an adult. Enjoy it!

ONE LAST HURRAH | a nov 2015 tr

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