1st ever trip report: DH, me, a pedometer and DxDDP! 6-night stay at CSR. (photos!)

[Jen12573]

DH and I returned from WDW on Sunday at 1AM. We are still Disney-tired, but we had an amazing trip again, third year in a row. We celebrated our anniversary later than usual - we normally go in January, but we moved our trip to Feb. 27-March 5 because DH started a new job in January. It was crowded, but not as bad as we expected. As you can see, I now have photos! More to come as I progress through the report.

Cast of characters:

Quick small addition to our "getting to know you" section. DH and I are planning to adopt in the coming year, so this is our last trip for at least 18 months, so we did it up big with the DxDDP and ate everywhere we really wanted to eat!

DH - Grant, 44, full time soccer coach, first time we've been to Disney in 3 years that we weren't at Wide World of Sports for the 3v3 soccer tournament with his kids for the first half of our trip. Eats anything except peas and isn't a fan of onions on his steak. Loves breakfast buffets! Loves Goofy, bought the Goofy colorful dreadlocks hat to wear to soccer practices with his kids for fun - they'll love it. Addicted to WDW popcorn!

Me - 37, Jen, Director of Marketing & Communications for a military school. Loves everything WDW, all about the Character breakfasts, and eats anything but was trying to choose healthy options. You'll note, that stopped shortly after our first meal ! Loves sweets especially! Loves Eeyore, but sadly did not get to see him on our trip, only as a topiary (very pretty by the way!) YUM, Mickey Premium Ice Cream Bars!!! a.k.a. Julie the cruise director from Love Boat, or Monica from friends because of my overplanning, detailed nature.

The pedometer - I was curious on this trip how much we'd walk during any given day at any given park. I wore the pedometer for the park portion of our days, but once we went back to get ready for dinner and left for a signature restaurant, I stopped wearing it and estimated the additional walking. Our theory - for every step we took, we stepped approximately 2-feet since we have long strides (even for a short person like me). So, 12,000 steps would be equivalent to 24,000 feet, at approximately 6,000 feet per mile (rounded up since I wore the pedometer while standing in lines taking steps that were much shorter than 2-feet in stride), we would say we walked 4 miles that day.

Details:
CSR - 7-day/6-night stay. 3rd trip there in three years to celebrate our anniversary. Grainger convention at the resort (again!) we were upgraded to a 1BR suite. Last year they were there in January when we were there. We met three folks from TX who joked that they heard we moved our trip and because we were so much fun last year, they moved the Grainger convention just to be with us again! Also said that with my personality, I'd be great as a Grainger employee. If it means a convention in WDW, I may look into it! LOL.

All pools were closed, we were offered a water park ticket to compensate, but we declined as we didn't really plan for a water park, and only wanted to have a pool to dangle our feet in after a long day at the parks. We normally go in January - March is definitely busier but not awful. But no biggie, it wasn't the end of the world.

The Grainger folks were nothing but nice, considerate and respectful. Did they take over the entire resort? Yes. Were we one of very few groups of actual vacationers? Yes. Did we ever have to fight for a seat on the bus? Nope - in fact on many occasions we were the only ones on it. Did it bother us having them there? No, after all it is a convention resort.

ADRs:
Day 1 - Arrival/Magic Kingdom
Lunch - Gasparilla Grill
Dinner - HDDR

Day 2 - Epcot
Breakfast - 1900 Park Fare
Lunch - Yorkshire Fish & Chips (shared fish & chips)
Dinner - Yachtsman Steakhouse

Day 3 - DHS
Breakfast - Cape May Cafe
Dinner - 50s Prime Time Cafe

Day 4 - AK
Breakfast - Tusker House
Dinner - Narcoossee's

Day 5 - MK
Lunch - Kona Cafe
Dinner - Flying Fish Cafe

Day 6 - Epcot
Breakfast - 1900 Park Fare
Dinner - back to Narcoossee's (originally planned Chef Mickey's but had extra credits to use!)

Day 7 - DHS/Departure
Breakfast - Chef Mickey's - kept trying because we love the characters there, finally got an ADR there at 9:45 the night before while leaving Narcoossee's!
Lunch - Pepper Market (shared)

Side trip - Lake Buena Vista Factory Stores - DH was hell bent on finding the plaid Nike golf shorts he saw at our Nike outlet. Hated having to go shopping on vacation, but it made him happy and what's not to love about a happy DH!

I hope someone finds this report helpful! I love The Dis, and want to give back any way that I can, everyone is so amazingly helpful!

Enjoy!

 

[Jen12573]

DH and I arrived at CSR around 11:30AM. Our room wasn't ready, and as we were checking in DH went over to Rix Cafe to pick up three beers. The lobby was swarming with Grainger convention folks, but we knew they'd be there. We've experienced them before, and they are very polite and respectful of actual vacationers.

Check in - well, we had a very new in-training Cast Member checking us in. He didn't say much other than, room isn't ready, call between 3-5PM, we have you in a preferred room in Casitas. We had no clue what "preferred room" meant, and since it wasn't ready yet and we loved Cabanas, we asked if something was available there just not ready yet. He couldn't tell, so a seasoned CM came over to help out. She said, well we have you in a preferred room. I said we aren't particular about that, we don't spend much time in the room, is there anything in Cabanas. She said, you're in a suite in Casitas. Well, we changed our minds and Casitas it was. But then I overhead that the pools were closed for Grainger. The Dig Site was closed when we were there last year for refurb. She offered water park tickets, we declined. I'm terrified of water slides. So, instead we ended up with a complimentary champagne toast at Laguna Bar. Two problems there that I just didn't feel like dealing with (we'd been up since 3AM) - 1. we don't drink champagne, 2. Laguna Bar was overrun with convention people, you couldn't get within 3 feet of the bar. So, we never made it there.

Gasparilla Grill - Buses were empty, thank you Grainger. We made it to MK in no time, then took the monorail over to GG for lunch. DH had his heart set on the Southwest Chicken sandwich - they changed the menu and the one on allears.net was dated. No Southwest Chicken sandwich. Epic fail! We had a regular grilled chicken sandwich, it was good but not great, but the beers and fries made up for it.

MK - it was the princess half marathon that morning, so the park was pretty crowded. We did get a FP for Space Mountain, and we rode it with a 15 minute wait. So we were happy. Popcorn and Mickey Bars for us! Also rode a few other rides, walked around.

DH actually got a haircut at the Barber (and he did an amazing job!) but I couldn't convince him to get the pixie dust! And we literally ran into a parade as it came out of the side entrance by the barber (running into parades happens to us a lot, we never plan for them, but find ourselves at the start or the middle of one as we come off a ride or something!) AWESOME! Then went back to the resort to find our room and freshen up for our 9:30 ADR at HDDR.

The suite at CSR was amazing - his and her bathrooms, separate bedroom, robes, living room, dining room, two fridges. What could be bad. Our luggage was delivered, stuff from Garden Grocer was delivered, we were good to go.

HDDR 9:30 show, nice and empty we were all on tier 1 seating - it was HILARIOUS! Food was amazing! My BFF told me "you have to go for dinner there, you just have to" we'd never been. We can't wait to go back. The salad was delicious (a little over dressed but still awesome), I could have eaten a loaf of corn bread myself (practically did because DH doesn't really like it with dinner), fried chicken was moist, crunchy and delicious. Ribs were OK. Mashed potatoes, yum! Cowboy beans, they were OK. The entertainment was terrific, DH and I are both so glad that we went. We will absolutely go again.

Pedometer: 16,728 steps = 33,456 feet = 5.5 miles walked (estimate)

FOUR STAR DAY out of five / 3 BOXES OF POPCORN, 1 MICKEY BAR!

 

[ChattaAlley]

Sounds exciting!!!!!! Looking forward to more.

 

[Jen12573]

Sounds exciting!!!!!! Looking forward to more.

YAY - welcome, and thanks for reading! I get a little long winded, so I will try to edit myself

 

[HuskerFaninIL]

subbing in!

 

[NMW]

Subscribing

 

[Heffielump]

I'm in! I work in Marketing and Communications too!

 

[MelMel11]

Count me in!! Cant wait to hear more..

 

[Jen12573]

Today was our first of two Epcot days. As often as we try to do the countries, we never quite make it past England - we'll have to go the other direction next time

We arrived at Epcot just in time for rope drop, even after a late night the night before at HDDR. We went straight to Soarin', got a FP, rode the ride from the regular line and saved our other FP for later. Went over to Test Track, rode that from the single rider line (not in the same car this time), and then off to The Seas with Nemo & Friends. By that time we could get another FP so we got one for Test Track, then walked back to the monorail for our 11AM ADR at 1900 Park Fare.

1900 Park Fare - we love the food here, we are big fans of made to order omelets, and the strawberry soup is to die for (and we now have the recipe). Our waitress was fantastic, she kept the coffee pot filled, chatted with us for a while, and made sure the characters came over. We had a later ADR and we missed Tigger and Pooh, but got to spend some quality time with Alice, Mary Poppins (my brother will be so jealous, she was his first crush!!) and the Mad Hatter. Food was incredible as always. Everything is always so fresh, even later in the morning they kept on replenishing everything. The bread pudding, wow! DH had an omelet, I had eggs over medium (and for once a chef got it right, not too runny, just right!) and we went back for seconds of course - another omelet for DH, and carbs for me - first Mickey waffle of the trip, a little bread pudding (yum!) and a biscuit. Delicious! And there went the diet for me. DH is a rail, so he can eat anything and it melts off him, darn him!!!

Back to Epcot, we used our FP for Soarin', Test Track, and then rode The Land for the first time, it was awesome. The ride was down last year for refurb, and we are so glad we went on it this year. Additional note: this will come up again later on - we loved the fish section, and I commented on the tilapia! I looooove tilapia! We really tried to do something new at each park this year. And we succeeded! We headed off to the countries, made it as far as England, had fish & chips and two Harps, and watched the birds on the lake.

Yachtsman Steakhouse - this was our first time here. We had free dining so I decided that since this will be our last trip for a couple of years, we upgraded to Deluxe. SOOOO WORTH IT! But it was definitely a lot of food. Our waitress was amazing, she told us about her favorites, and we ultimately decided on the crab cake for DH's appetizer, cheese board for mine, and she highly recommended we share the 24-oz Porterhouse steak and the lobster which was fresh and taken completely out of the shell. I ordered the porterhouse and DH the lobster, it was pretty comical seeing this giant steak in front of me and this small plate of 9 oz of lobster in front of DH. Dinner was amazing, we ate nearly every bite of both the steak and the lobster. DH had a potato which truly wasn't that great and the waitress said the same, took it back and replaced it with mashed potatoes. I had the creamed spinach instead of a potato, it was very heavy and with lots of garlic. We barely ate any of it, sadly. Dessert, DH got fruit (strawberries, blueberries and blackberries with whipped cream - no wonder he's so skinny!) and I had the sorbet. The pineapple chili sorbet was incredible - my favorite of the three they brought me.

Finally, back to CSR by taxi, and bed.

Pedometer: 18,780 steps = 37,560 feet = 6.26 miles walked.

FIVE STAR DAY, 2 boxes of popcorn, 0 Mickey bars.

 

[Jen12573]

subbing in!

Woo hoo - welcome!

Subscribing

Oh now I really need to download photos, I didn't expect anyone to sub!

I'm in! I work in Marketing and Communications too!

I'm telling you, Marketing & Communications, it's never the same day twice! Am I right?

Count me in!! Cant wait to hear more..

Yay, welcome!

I'll try to finish up Day 3 tonight, and the rest will be done tomorrow throughout the day. Whew, this is fun! and look at me, I figured out how to multi-quote!

 

[Jen12573]

I'll tell you off the bat, this was the day I considered harming DH or leaving him somewhere and going off on my own. He got a call and multiple emails on his phone from his boss (yes, soccer coaches have bosses too ) and he had to get some work done that night! He claimed he couldn't do it on his phone, so suddenly at 50s PTC he was in a mood and I wanted to kill him. The CM could totally tell his mood was not a fun one, so we didn't have as much fun there as we usually do. Needless to say, at the end of the night, we went over to the Club Lounge at CSR (we know the guys who work there and they remember us every year), and thankfully Luisito was my saviour, he let DH use the computer, work got done, and we had two espressos while we were there. After that, the rest of the trip was terrific!

So, Off to DHS we go. It was raining today, a little surprising, it lasted longer and started earlier than we expected. It was fine though, kept the park pretty empty for a while. We got there, went to get a FP at Toy Story and rode it with a 10 minute wait (amazing even at park opening), and then rode RnR, our favorite ride. It was maybe a 10 minute wait, so we went on that, and then walked around for a bit before getting our next FP for RnR. DH is afraid to go on ToT so we didn't venture on it this year. Maybe another time.

Cape May Cafe - DH, still in a good mood at this point. This was our first time here, and we went because we heard that you get some quality time with the characters. That is so true, they were amazing. They came over to the table, sat with us, joked with DH, and it was all in all very fun. Food was basic, but still delicious. I loved the yogurt bar, and DH and I both enjoyed the fruit and the potatoes here were better than 1900 Park Fare (with peppers and onions, yum!)

From here we went on our side trip - off to Lake Buena Vista Factory Stores. We went to Nike, he found two pairs of the shorts he wanted, that crisis was over. He was pre-occupied and so focused on going to Nike to find those shorts that he had blinders on. Yes, I have a husband who shops, and when he wants something it has to be soon! I rearranged our schedule to get him there. So, that was done, stopped back at the resort to drop off his loot and back to DHS.

We rode our Toy Story FP, yes I beat DH again, and then RnR. We also did the Muppets 3D because I love the Muppets and we have to do it all the time.

50s PTC - again, this is where DH ended up in a complete funk. He got a few emails, had to get work done, snapped at me and I considered leaving him there to fend for himself. But I trudged on, what's Disney without a little meltdown by someone, it doesn't always have to be a child who has the meltdown right? I had the wedge salad as my app, DH had the crabcake, both were delicious. I had meatloaf, he had the pot roast. Again they were delicious, but DH was a little disappointed that he could tell the veggies were not simmered all day with the pot roast like I make mine. Glad to hear mine is still better! It's my signature dish at home in the crock pot. Amazingly we both cleared our plates, and got our "clean plate club stickers" that brought a smile to DH's face for a little bit. Before he focused again on the emails he needed to repsond to. For dessert, because I could tell he wanted to get going, and we were both stuffed, we got fruit to go. Our "cousin" was great - I know she would have really given us a hard time if DH was in the mood, but she could tell. She gave us an amazingly giant platter of fruit, and showed us how pretty she asked them to make it for us. It was delicious, we had it later that night for dessert.

We headed back to the hotel, went to the business center, but it was closing in 5 minutes. DH got one of the many emails done he needed to get done. Then we went to the club lounge. As I said before, Luisito is my saviour. We were there three years ago when it first opened, we stopped back last year and they remembered us, so we knew we'd be OK again this year to stop in to use the computer, and we were. DH did his work, I chatted with the 5 CMs who were working there for the Grainger convention. They asked what my opinion of them was being a regular vacationer, I told them that we didn't mind them at all, they are very kind and respectful, and they aren't a rowdy bunch at all (for the most part, the first night they were). They agreed, they like them a lot because of how respectful they are. They offered us snacks and espresso, we took them up on the espresso and each had two. Delicious, and not Nescafe!

Off to bed, finally, after a bowl of gelatto each. DH had mango and lemon, I had chocolate hazelnut. Both were incredible. And DH was happy his work was done! So was I!

Pedometer: 14,654 steps = 29,308 feet = 4.88 miles walked.

3 STAR DAY (DH's fault) / 1 box of popcorn, 1 Mickey bar

 

[Heffielump]

You're 100% right! Never the same day twice in MarCom! But that's one of the best parts of the job!

I'm loving your trip report and I'm glad your DH got to a computer! It was so nice of them to let you borrow theirs. Must love Disney magic

 

[Jen12573]

I am downloading photos and video as I type, so good news I'll be adding some in later on today!

We woke up early for the EMH at AK today! We love getting to AK right when it opens, but we did miss the little rope drop ceremony that they do before the 8AM opening. We headed right over to Safari, got a FP and rode the ride. There was a family getting FP while we were, and they were concerned because the return time was during their breakfast. I told them that they could come back after the return time with no problems. A crazy CM stepped in and berated me saying to the couple 'no, you can't return after your one hour time block especially when the park gets busy.' I responded and said that all the other parks allow you to return after the hour time block, what was different about AK. He kept on and told the family that they had to come back during the one hour window. Idiot. Whatever, he was wrong, and he was actually quite rude about it. But I digress. Off to Safari we went, and it was amazing, we saw more animals than we usually see - but the lion was nowhere to be found. From here we went to EE, rode that for the first time in the second to last row, row 16. We highly recommend row 16 if you like getting airtime! We tried row 17 during one of our next three times on the ride, and prefer row 16. We saw the same father and son sitting behind us each time we rode, and when we were on the ride we were on the same "train" each and every time - it was pretty funny! We weren't sure if we were going to like it as much as we did before we ever rode RnR, but being in the back really changed our minds. After EE, and picking up another FP for it, and we were given another two FP for the ride by a gentleman, then we headed off to our 9:40AM breakfast at Tusker House.

Tusker House - what can I say, jungle juice is amazing! We had a blast here, as soon as we walked in Daisy was taking our section around with the instruments, making all sorts of 'music' and having fun with the kids. It was awesome. This was our first time here. A little bummed that Donald is out front, we chose not to get a photo with him, but I got a photo OF him as we left. The fare was the usual breakfast buffet fare, with a little twist, plus tater tots - DH's favorite. We were excited, the meal was delicious, and we saw all the characters.

Mmm, Mickey Bar for dessert!

After Tusker House we rode EE another three times (I have the bruise on my right knee to prove it!) followed by Dinosaur (love that ride, it scares me every time!) and then we saw the Nemo show. We went last year, and a friend recommended we sit up in the front section, so we did again this year this time on the right side as you face the stage. It was terrific as always, but we were both so tired that while we waited we nearly dozed off. After Nemo we walked around a little bit, went to see the tigers who were just chillin' in the sun, and finally we went back to our resort to get ready for dinner.

Narcoossee's - this is our favorite signature restaurant. DH loves the surf & turf, and I'm a fan of their crab crusted fish, this time it was mahi mahi. Delicious. We had a 7:30 ADR, sat at the bar until our table was ready, the fireworks were getting ready to start, our buzzer went off and we had a table by the window, perfect viewing of the fireworks. We started with a crabcake for DH (you are probably starting to see a trend here, he tried the crabcakes everywhere we went), and I had the Brie en Croute - absolutely amazing! For dinner, DH of course had the surf & turf, delicious. And I had the crab crusted mahi mahi. During dinner, as DH was raving about his meal again, I said you know we have some extra credits if you want to eat here again we can. He looked at me like, why would you even ask, of course I want to eat here again. For dessert, DH had fruit (damn him) and I had the chocolate mousse which was outstanding, there wasn't a drop left on my plate! We watched the water show with a delicious pot of pressed coffee and then headed back to our resort for the night. The rest of that night, I checked reservations online to see if we could find something at Narcoossee's for our last night, they had a 9:20 but we wanted something a little earlier.

I totally forgot to add - tonight was laundry night. We returned from Narcoossee's, after 2 generous glasses of my favorite pinot noir (King Estate from Oregon), I went off to Casitas 4/5 area to do laundry. I checked email for work, responded to a few, kept checking for an ADR at Narcoossee's, also was checking for an ADR at Chef Mickey's for 3/6 our last day, just in case we could get an ADR at Narcoossee's for 3/5 - alas there was nothing. Finally I finished up the laundry around midnight, off to bed.

Pedometer: 21,243 steps = 42,486 feet = 7.08 miles walked.

FIVE STAR DAY - without a doubt! 2 boxes of popcorn, (oops) 1 Mickey bar.

 

[Jen12573]

DH and I decided that we wanted to return to Narcoossee's on our last night for another dinner because it truly is our favorite restaurant, and what better way to end the trip than with our favorite meal at our favorite restaurant? So, we decided to start trying for an ADR there for 3/5; which meant we'd have to cancel our Chef Mickey's dinner for that night, and try to see if we could get a breakfast for 3/6. That was fun. Thank goodness for having my Droid X this year.

We were up early and off to MK first thing in the morning for AM EMH. By 10AM we tackled Space Mountain, Small World, Mad Tea Party, Thunder Mountain, and were on our way to Tom Sawyer Island. This was the first time we'd ever been over there, and it was such a fun little 'excursion' if you will. All the while we were on the raft I was checking for that elusive Narcoossee's ADR that wasn't at 9:20PM. Jackpot - we found one! It was for 7:30 on 3/5. We decided that since we had a window seat we didn't care if we could see fireworks again, so I called when we got to the island while sitting at the checkerboard, and made the ADR. Next up, trying to find an ADR for Chef Mickey's for Saturday morning, 3/6. Oh boy!

Once we finished at Tom Sawyer Island, we hit Space Mountain again to get another FP and then we were off to lunch.

Kona Cafe - this was our little hidden jem when we were in WDW in 2010. We changed an ADR and while sitting in the club lounge at CSR, a CM named Willie recommended that we give Kona Cafe a try for dinner. We did, and we loved it. But because of all our signature ADRs, we couldn't fit it in for dinner, so we opted for lunch. DH had - the crabcake for his appetizer (good, but not as good as Narcoossee's), and I had my coconut shrimp curry soup, oh how amazing that soup is! DH followed that with the Asian Noodle Bowl - delicious and I was very jealous, and I had the Island Chicken Sandwich. Also delicious, but the noodle bowl was far better, I will definitely get that next time. DH loved it too. He ended with the kilauea torte and I had the chocolate fondue mostly for the fruit that came with it. Delicious.

Back to MK, more rides, a little relaxing spin on the people-mover, used our FP on the Jungle Cruise and we finally headed back to the resort to change for dinner.

Flying Fish Cafe - this was our first time here and we were amazed. Getting there was really easy on the transportation system, the buses just worked out perfectly for us each time we needed to transfer. The food was amazing, atmosphere was awesome, our waitress was terrific although a little high pitched and perkier than I was looking for during a relaxing later dinner, but she was fun regardless, and very informative about our selections and recommending some of her favorites. I started with the tomato and mozzarella salad - and we learned that 90% of all tomatoes are flash-ripened, meaning they are picked well before they are ripe and the farmers will flash-ripen them. The tomatoes in this salad were grown and ripened on the vine, and picked fresh, from a family owned farm on the west coast of FL. They were, hands down, some of the best tomatoes I've ever eaten in my life. DH had, you guessed it, the crabcake. Again, very, very good but not as good as Narcoossee's. That was his basis of comparison for every one that he ate. For dinner DH had the salmon, also very good, and I had the surf and surf which was "EPCOT TILAPIA" and rock shrimp. At first, I felt a little funny having the tilapia I saw only days before while on a ride in Epcot, but it was the best darn tilapia I've ever eaten. This was by far, one of my favorite restaurants in WDW! For dessert we each had the sorbet, we just wanted something cool and refreshing, and it was delicious.

And finally, end of the night, we headed back to the resort and bed. Finally. We were exhausted.

Pedometer = 15,724 steps = 31,448 feet = 5.24 miles walked.

FIVE STAR DAY / 1 box of popcorn, 0 Mickey bars.

 

[Jen12573]

Good morning everyone! Not sure if anyone is still reading, but I'm having a great time reliving my vacation in print!

Today was our second Epcot day, just in time for the Flower and Garden Festival. We arrived for rope drop, and enjoyed seeing the characters open the park. It's one of our favorite things to do. We find it absolutely amazing that we have no problems getting up at the butt-crack of dawn to make it to a park, yet if we were home we'd be hitting snooze for nearly an hour before getting out of bed!

As usual, we started our day at Soarin' we got a FP and then rode the ride. What a great way to wake up in the morning, to the smells of the evergreens and orange blossoms! Just simply incredible! Following Soarin' we rode Journey into Imagination before heading to Test Track. After an exciting ride on Test Track, we headed off to the monorail to go for our ADR at 1900 Park Fare.

1900 Park Fare - oh how we love this restaurant. It was so much fun. We were there a little earlier and got to spend alot of quality time with Tigger, Pooh, and we had fun joking around with Alice (who was teasing a young man behind us who said that his partner's shirt was blue, and we were all saying it looked more grey than blue). Alice enlisted everyone seated around them to try to prove it was grey - and when DH agreed that it looked grey, she said - see there you go, even a man said it's grey so it must be! Alice, the Mad Hatter and Mary Poppins were a riot today, we had a lot of fun today. If you want to know what we ate, you can check out Day 2- we ate exactly the same things, in exactly the same order. For me, eggs first then carbs, and both of us enjoyed the strawberry soup again.

After breakfast, we returned to Epcot, used our Soarin' FP and on the way out, stopped off for a decent pretzel (we don't like the ones in Germany), because we are heading to the countries! We went the same direction, stopped off at the pub in England to get some Harps. DH wanted to get another batch of fish & chips but the line was insane, so we skipped it. Good thing because we would not have had enough room for dinner at Narcoossee's! Even though we started on the side with England, we actually made it all the way around the countries, stopping off for my annual sombrero photo in Mexico.

I even made DH put a mini-sombrero on this year!

We had a great time! Although it was a bit crowded today.

Back to the hotel, relax for a bit, and then off to Narcoossee's for another dinner.

Narcoossee's - there was no doubt that DH was going to get the crabcakes and surf & turf. As for me, I wanted something different. So I had the crabcakes (my first of the trip) and the filet mignon, with of course my glass of King Estate pinot noir. For dessert, DH had the strawberry lemon tart (delicious) and I had the chocolate mousse (again, I intended to eat fruit or sorbet but that didn't happen!). We enjoyed two pots of pressed coffee, watched the water show again, and then back to the resort to start packing up because we are departing on Saturday, day 7.

I should add that this entire day was also spent looking for a breakfast ADR at Chef Mickey's. After an entire day of looking, I found a 10:40AM ADR for Saturday morning, so we booked it. I loved that we changed our Chef Mickey's dinner on day 6 to Narcoossee's again (we love it there) but I hated not going to Chef Mickey's, it's one of DH's favorites. So we were very happy to find the ADR for Saturday morning.

Pedometer: 19,156 steps = 38,312 feet = 6.38 miles walked.

FIVE STAR DAY / 1 box of popcorn, 1 Mickey bar (before the beer).

 

[Jen12573]

I think I've been avoiding typing up my last day because I just don't want the trip to end again.

Today, even with the fact that we had to check out and check in our luggage with ME (even though we had a 4:15PM pick up), we still made it to DHS in time for 8AM EMH. I was thrilled! I also spent the entire day 6 trying to get an ADR at Chef Mickey's. Finally it worked out, we had a 10:40AM ADR. Perfect!

We woke up at 5:45 and packed up DH's bag (mine was packed the night before, of course). We headed off to ME to check in, and then back to the main building to check out completely. All went well, and we were finally on our way to DHS.

We made it to DHS just in time for the park to open, I think it had opened maybe 5 minutes before we arrived. Evidently the bus driver told us that dispatch forgot to send out buses early enough for DHS's EMH, so they were scrambling all morning to get people to the parks. The All Star resorts had lines of over 200 people for a DHS bus. Glad we were one of very few vacationing groups at CSR, thank you again Grainger. Once at DHS, we got a few photos outside

and then we headed over to Toy Story to get a FP, and finally back to RnR. We rode that, went through Walt Disney: One Man's Dream, and then it was time for us to head off to breakfast at Chef Mickey's.

I should add first, I get very emotional when I see stories about WDW, we share the same birthday and to be honest, I feel a little special about that. So of course, that lead me to cry during One Man's Dream. And as we left, I told DH that everyone should have to see that before they go to the parks!

Chef Mickey's - what can I say about Chef Mickey's? It's the usual breakfast fare, but the atmosphere is definitely what you go there for. We had a great time, food was delicious, and the characters were amazing. We had some quality time with Mickey, Minnie and Goofy.

After CM, we stopped over at the gift shop because we had snack credits to burn, and we spotted the candy counter. We bought 4 of those giant cashew cluster patties, and just finished the last one last night. They are huge, delicious, and well worth the snack credit!!!

Following our stint at the CR, we headed back to DHS, used our Toy Story pass, and watched some of the ESPN The Weekend broadcast. Now, I'm a huge NY Jets fan, so seeing Herm Edwards only steps away from me was pretty amazing,

and later "'running into a parade" of three NY Jets players as we walked out,

PERFECT!

DH was pretty excited about seeing Mia Hamm as well.

So, finally we headed off to the hotel to chill out before it was time to board the ME bus. We stopped over at Pepper Market to use our final meal credit. There's nothing to really report on that, we had a chicken sandwich from the grill, it was good but not great (as DH said, it was no Southwest Chicken Sandwich that was taken off the menu at Gasparilla Grill). But it ended the trip still on a high note. We were happy, the trip was amazing, and I can't believe we have to wait more than a year to return!

Pedometer - 13,241 steps = 26,482 feet = 4.41 miles walked on our last day.

So, the trip - FOUR out of FIVE STARS - the meltdown, a few hiccups with the convention, and a couple other minor issues. Overall, it was simply amazing. We love WDW and can't wait to return.

If you have any questions, just let me know. Thanks for reliving our trip with me!

Jen

 

[dawne98]

looks like you had a great time I hope to go to ESPN weekend next year and ran in the 5k

 

[Diegosmom]

Thanks for the great report.

 

[gendaisy]

Thanks for a neat trip report. Sounds like you guys had a good time!

 

[v.t.]

Great trip report! Thanks for sharing.