We woke up about 7 AM, and were prepared to leave for the airport by 9 AM. When I was getting ready, I forgot that you have to guard the sink with your life around my soon to be niece.
Meet Medusa, who loves fresh tap water, and who does not follow the No Cats on Counters or Personal Boundaries rules. She helped herself to what must have been a cats equivalent of a gallon of water, and off she went for more beauty sleep. Before we knew it, it was time to head off to the airport! All the planning, and the research, it was all about to pay off!
We stopped along the way at a McDonalds for breakfast. I never eat McDonalds in my normal day to day life, so it was a nice treat to start off vacation. It was a short 10 minute ride to the airport. We were flying on Southwest, and even though I checked in at 23 hours and 50 minutes, we still got boarding group B. Oh well.
Our security experience was
odd. I went through without a problem, but Adam got stopped by security because they thought he had a razor blade in his wallet. It was not in fact a razor blade, but a security device that was sewn into his wallet. This wallet has gone through airport security approximately 12,694 times. Ok, not that many times, but enough that if there were in fact a razor blade, or something that resembled a razor blade, it should have been noticed before today. After about 20 minutes (literally!) the TSA officer, unable to locate the non-existent razor blade in the wallet, accepted our explanation that it really was just a security device sewn into the wallet. So note to yourself, if ever thinking of designing wallets, either have external security devices, or dont shape them like something that could resemble a razor blade. But, they were just doing their jobs, and in the end, I appreciated that they investigated a potentially dangerous situation. They did make Adam go through the full pat down which he was not amused by. Hey honey, its the price some of us (haha, you in this case!) have to pay to ensure our safety.
We made it through security, stopped off at the newsstand for some tabloid gossip for me, and found a place to wait for our flight. I excused myself to the restroom, and only was gone a moment or two, and when I came back, they were started to line up the boarding groups. Yay!
Now, I love Southwest, and I LOVE the fact that they now assign boarding groups. The first time I flew them was in the pre-boarding group days. YIKES! I do really wish that instead of doing boarding groups, they would set it up so that when you check in, you pick your seat, and there are no changes after that. It really would eliminate that whole cattle corral feeling.
While we were gathering in our corral, I was then approached by TSA along with a few other individuals wearing caps, asked to remove my hat and it was again inspected. I also was carrying a very large purse (think capable of holding a small toddler) and that was also re-inspected! Milwaukee Mitchell could possibly be the safest airport in the country!
We finally did make it on the plane and found a middle and window seat about 10 rows back. I have to say, of all the flights I have been on, I was really impressed with how quickly everyone loaded and how considerate they were with the overhead bin space. No one had to gate check and there was not any noticeable bag rearranging that had to take place. Awesome! We were able to take off 10 minutes early! I was very nervous about making our dinner reservation this night because I was unsure how long the ME would take, so this put a smile on my face!
Heres a quick picture of us, about to depart!
We had a relatively uneventful flight, and even managed to pick up another 15 minutes in the air! Awesome! Before I knew it (and thankfully before my ipod ran out of charge) we were landing in Orlando. Holy wow it is hot here!! It had been in the 90s at home before we left (very unusual for us) but it still didnt prepare us for the humidity. We quickly made it off the plane and towards the Magical Express, it was very easy to find! We were checked in without delay, and got there just in time, a HUGE group got there right after us. It was the start of the Free Dining promotion, so the lines for the Values got incredibly long, thankfully we were only about 10 back from the end of the Pop line. We had barely made it to the end when the CM called out for 2 more, that was us! We were put on a bus bound for Caribbean Beach, with a few Pop guests on as well.
We were dropped off first, and since we had done online check in, had no wait at all! They had our folio already printed, and met all of the room requests I made by fax the week before (renovated room, highest floor possible, King Bed). Things were going well for us! We quickly went up to room to check things out there and then went down to for dinner.
We were staying in the 90s building, directly across from the laptop pool, in the building with the laptop on it. We cut across the parking lot to the bus stop and boarded a bus to Downtown Disney.
A few pics from Downtown Disney:
We were about 20 minutes early for our ADR at Raglan Road and were given a pager. We waited about 10 minutes before we were ready to be seated.
Our server was Chris. Other than a few, very minor, timing issues with the meal, he was outstanding as a server. This was our first meal, and he was really excellent at explaining how the menu there worked and what we could, and could not have, on the Deluxe plan.
Now, on to the good stuff. For drinks I had a pomegranate lemonade, and Adam had a Diet Coke. (Apparently I really enjoyed that lemonade!)
I had a really hard time deciding on my appetizer, but finally decided on the Kinky Crab, and yes, that is really the name of it.
Kilmore Quay crab spring rolls served with a sweet chili jam $9
These are very much like egg rolls, and were filled with amazing fresh crab. Being from Wisconsin, you rarely ever see real crab on a menu because its really not very easy to get, and most people won't pay the price to have it brought in, so this was really a treat. They rolls came out hot and were absolutely delicious. The dipping sauce was a tomato based sweet chili sauce, and went perfectly with the sweet crab. What I really appreciated about this dish was that this was all crab on the inside, no filler like you would find in a crab cake. It was really lovely!
Adam got the heritage tomato salad.
Heirloom tomato and rocket salad, with shallots, parmesan crisps and balsamic reduction $9
Now, while I absolutely can't stand tomatoes, Adam would actually probably trade me in for a tomato, if they were in short supply. He enjoyed the tomatoes, but did not care for the dressing, which was very bitter.
For my entree, I went with the "It's not Bleedin Chowder".
It is potatoes, mussels, prawns, scallops and fresh seafood infused with white wine and finished with cream $24. This as well, was really excellent. It also had some succulent gulf shrimp in it. No problems at all there. And the best part, by far, was the white wine sauce. If it would have been socially acceptable, I would have licked the bowl. Really wonderful, and like nothing I've ever really had before.
Adam went, not surprisingly, with the Mighty Mixed Grill:
Lamb cutlet, Guinness banger, sirloin steak, black pudding, chicken drumstick and bacon $28 (From AllEars). Everything got a substantial thumbs up, with the exception of the black pudding. For those of you who have tried it before, you know it is definitely an acquired taste, one of which Adam has yet to acquire. The potatoes that were piped along with the dish were also really delicious.
Somehow, I missed pictures at dessert time, because all that comes up on the camera is this:
but I had Ger's Bread and Butter Pudding, and Adam had the Strawberry Apple Crisp. Both were good, but neither were anything to write home about. I enjoyed the Pudding because it was not a "sweet" dessert, but the portion of it was huge. I only got about halfway through it, and Chris said that most people don't even get that far.
So, while we were secluded inside of Raglan Road (Off topic, but it is really beautiful in there!) we didnt notice that it had started to down pour outside. I mean, REALLY rain. Before I left, I had ponchos on our To Buy list, but I forgot. I remembered on our drive to Milwaukee, and we had a conversation about how if we remembered to bring them it would probably be sunshine every day, and if we forgot it would pour. Needless to say, we forgot to make another stop before getting on the plane. So, we made a mad dash for the nearest store, and shelled out a whopping $30 bucks for 2 ponchos. $30!!! I know we are in Disney, but really? I was really kicking myself for forgetting, because 2 ponchos at home would have been $10. Needless to say, it was still $30 well spent, because these were used liberally throughout the week. We had planned on going to Jellyrolls after dinner, but I was so soaked by the time we bought our ponchos that they were really pointless, and to make matters worse, the bus driver had the air conditioning on full blast, which made for a very chilly ride back to Pop. By the time we got back I was in a mood and didnt feel like going to Jellyrolls. Heres a charming picture of me in my poncho:
We had been gone a few hours when we got back, and our luggage hadnt arrived. HUGE bummer when we were soaking wet. We decided to call down to the front desk to check on that since we had also ordered groceries from Garden Grocer. They lady we were transferred to was extremely helpful (as was everyone we encountered at Pop!) and explained that since there was lightning before (we had no idea!) that they had suspended baggage delivery. She explained that they would be resuming shortly; I explained that we got caught in the rain at Downtown Disney and were soaking wet, she said they would drop our bags off first.
It wasnt 5 minutes later and our bags and our groceries came up as well. I cant say enough nice things about Garden Grocer! We ordered just a few snack items from them (chips, lots of bottled water, my chai tea, and a Styrofoam cooler from them). I am a liquor/wine drinker, and so packed mini airliners of liquor and mini wine bottles in my checked luggage. Adam is a beer drinker, so we had Garden Grocer also do a beer run for him.
I dont know why he doesnt just drink water, but he likes his Busch Light. He was pretty sad that unlike at home, Busch only comes in a 24-pack here, and not in a 30-pack. And FYI, a case of Busch and 2 12-packs of Corona in bottles was less expensive than buying a 12 pack of bottles at the resort! Rather than paying for drinks at dinner, we would just come back to the room, I would have a few glasses of wine, he would have a few beers.
By this point we were both pretty tired and we had a really early morning tomorrow, so it was off to bed!!
