Today was going to be a relaxing day as we had the Pirate and Princess Party that evening, so the plan was to have a look round Downtown Disney and try our hand at some gaming in Disney Quest.
Staying in Concierge was great as it meant we didnt waste our precious counter service credits on breakfast and instead indulged in the great offerings of free food upstairs. After showering and not putting on sunscreen after the fiasco of the day before, we headed up to grab some breakfast.
The layout was the same and while Steven headed for the fruit and healthy options, I chose a cinnamon and cheese Danish. I am beginning to think that the 3 pounds I put on during our stay is down to this alone! I still think the coffee on Disney property is among the best coffee I have tasted. I know I am bound to get challenged on this as it is probably cheap stuff, but it was really smooth and exactly what I needed on these early mornings.
Since we had arrived in Disney we hadnt slept past 7am. I know, we are supposed to be on vacation so sleeping in should be allowed, but I found that I was never really tired in Orlando. My attitude to vacationing is that I want to squeeze in as much as possible so staying in bed all day, while in theory sounds good, is not that way I roll!
The journey to Downtown Disney was pleasant and the sun was shining again, I was excited to be just chilling for once. The next day we would be eating at Raglan Road for dinner again and we would hopefully get a chance to see Pleasure Island at its best.
We had not done any shopping as yet and although there were plenty thing in stores I liked, I couldnt bring myself to buy them. A lot of stuff on sale was typical tourist garb and to be honest I could pick that up at my local
Disney store, I was looking for something more, but unfortunately never found it at Downtown Disney. The place itself was really nice, and I found myself eyeing the boats once again, but other than that we found ourselves just wandering back and forth. After several hours of looking and not buying, we decided it was time to head to Disney Quest.
Steven and I both like our gaming, he is into games like Borderlands, Need for Speed, Mass Effect and recently Battlefield. I on the other hand LOVE Gears of War 2, Call of Duty, Lips and most recently Assassins Creed 2. We are quite a pair. We both play online (Xbox 360) and while I am competitive I dont get as frustrated as Steven, think throwing the pad and screaming at the TV! Maybe its because I am better! As a girl I find online playing can be funny at times. I dont talk much as when players find out youre a girl they immediately jump to the wrong conclusion and assume you cant play. Little do they know but I have been playing games for years! But I digress once again
It was wonderful and cool in Disney Quest and the first place we headed for was Virtual Jungle Cruise. I had seen this the last time we were here and I was determined to give it a go. There wasnt a long queue and before long we were boarding our inflatable watercraft. Although this ride was fun, it was over very quickly. We started off really well, avoiding all the dinosaurs and paddling in synch, but I dont know what happened, we lost it and seemed to take a wrong turn somewhere. It was slightly disappointing as graphically the game wasnt up to much but I thought the duration of the game might have made it worthwhile. It didnt.
As we were just opposite the Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for Buccaneer Gold , we decided to try this, again the queue was short, but we did have to wait for some more pirates to join our team. When there were four we boarded our ship and was surrounded by screens, it was dark and although the graphics left a lot to be desired, it was a hell of a lot better than the Virtual Jungle Cruise. Three of us had control of a cannon and the other player was the Captain (not Steven or I) and steered the ship. We had to shoot at other pirate ships and fortresses in the ocean to collect our gold. This was a fast paced game and by the end of it my arms were hurting from the constant shooting. It was hilarious though, our team really got into it and we were cheering when passing by ships capsized! I would highly recommend playing this game and it is definitely something I would play again.
We moved up to the second floor where there was Cyber Space Mountain. Now I wanted to do this with Steven but he flat out refused, as he hated these things due to his intermittent motion sickness. I say intermittent as I find it strange that he felt fine on Mission Space and Star Tours but isnt on others, go figure! So I decided to build my coaster but it took a lot longer than I thought. There were so many turns and spins available that I just wasnt sure how rough this ride was gonna be, so I chickened out a bit and only put in some loops but built the majority of it quite straight with big drops. I stood in the queue felling quite nervous. It might have been the screams I heard, but who knows! I was eventually escorted to my coaster and was asked if I was sure I wanted to ride it. This had me worried, what did he mean? Why wouldnt I be sure, did it look too scary? I said I was sure, even though I knew I wasnt. The door closed behind me and it started.
There were big drops and tight twists with a few loops, but this had to be the tamest ride I had ever been on. I barely moved and that is no exaggeration. It was crap! I dont know if my design had let it down, but I couldnt see anyone being impressed with this. I was tempted to come out and ride one of the pre-set tracks to see if it was any better, but I was afraid I would waste 3 minutes of my time. When it finished I was asked if I wanted to purchase a video of me riding my coaster. Absolutely not, what a waste! I told Steven my thoughts and quickly left the design area. This is one ride I wouldnt bother with again.
We didnt try Aladdins Magic Carpet Ride as again Steven thought this might make him sick and I didnt want to try it alone. Nothing else here interested us so we headed to the next floor. I quite liked the look of the Pinball Slam but Steven thought that it looked embarrassing and didnt want to take part. The queue was really long too and I didnt want to stand and wait. We had already played Buzz Lightyears AstroBlaster which was damn good, but the queue was huge so we went to the next floor.
Ride the Comix was a game where players donned a pretty cool looking helmet to take them into the comic book world. We decided to give this a go and we were given instructions on what we had to do while in the virtual world. It was a basic game, we had a sword and had to fight villains but it was pretty poor if Im honest. I like the idea of the game but it was boring and simplistic and not worth the time.
Having visited all the big things that Disney Quest had to offer, we settled on playing some racing games (very disappointing) and some shoot em up games (alright but played better). There were lots of arcade games to choose from and the only ones that were half decent were the co-op shooting games, only because it allowed Steven and I to work together. I dont know what I expected at Disney Quest but I was very disappointed with the attractions. As we both like gaming, I thought that this would appeal to us but I could easily give Disney Quest a miss next time. It really isnt worth the visit unless you have children, even then I would only go if it was included in your theme park tickets. With all that Disney itself has to offer, I would think that most people could think of better things they could be doing with their time.
It was now time for lunch and there were only two places in Disney Quest that we could use our CS credits. I actually wish we had left and chose to eat in Downtown Disney, but for some reason this didnt occur to me and instead we chose Food Quest which was also disappointing.
We both had chicken nuggets with a side of fries, a diet coke and cheesecake for dessert.
It was quick service food which can never be described as gourmet, but my chicken was overcooked and chewy, to be honest I would question whether there was any chicken in it at all as I all I could taste was the breading. I was surprised as I had chicken nuggets before at other quick service places in Disney and had never received a bad batch, but this was the exception. Stevens nuggets werent much better but were edible. The side of fries on the other hand were great, as they always seem to be, and this alone was quite filling.
The cheesecake was plain with dark chocolate chips and this was the same type of cheesecake that seems to be standard around the Disney parks. Very tasty, creamy and the chocolate chips just added that little something extra in my opinion. Had I not had the chips, cheesecake and drink I would have had to get something else, but I was just eager to leave and wanted to get out in the fresh air, or at least see some light!
We didnt have anything booked for dinner that night because of the Pirate and Princess Party, but I do wish I had booked something for earlier as I had a feeling we would be hungry by the end of the night. We still had mini desserts in the fridge and we could pick up something in the Magic Kingdom if we had to. Once we arrived back at The Grand Floridian, I asked Steven if he was interested in going to see Cirque de Soleil. I didnt know how much it would cost but it was worth checking out. I called to see what the availability was and the ticket price and was shocked to hear it was the equivalent of £130 sterling. However she did say that it was some of the best seats, 4 rows back and right in the centre. I told Steven and he agreed it would be worth seeing, so I asked for tickets for when we came back from the cruise (in 6 nights time). I was told I could pick the tickets up when we went to see the show. This was an unexpected excursion, but I was really looking forward to it.
When we came back from the cruise we would be staying at The Crowne Plaza at Universal, so coming back to Downtown Disney might prove problematic. However we had no more spare nights and although we hadnt intended to come back to Disney after the cruise, we had no choice. We did end up spending our very last day in Epcot unintentionally, but we took our time, had a laugh and got some great pictures. It was one of the best days we had
We spent the next couple of hours relaxing on the balcony with our diet cokes and people watching. I did pop up to grab some afternoon snacks from concierge and put them in the fridge for later. After showering it was time to get ready for the Pirate and Princess Party. Finally we get to go
Coming up
The Pirate and Princess Party
DH and I haven't moved yet either. We are actually looking at the Vero Beach area now. It's about 1 1/2 to 2 hours southeast of Orlando. We went down a couple of weeks ago to check it out, and we are going back in August when DH gets more vacation time to check out the job prospects. Hopefully it will happen for us. 
