A Gift To Mom: BCV Adventure (1/18-25)

[Thanlis]

Joining your TR! You had me at the Doctor Who reference.

I wear my geek on my sleeve.

 

[Thanlis]

Back home again, which means it's time to work on day 3 of the trip report.

Tonga Tonga Tonga Toast: 1/20 (part 1)​

I woke up by myself at 6 AM again and amused myself by reading until the alarm went off at 7:15. For the first forty years of my life I was a late riser, but then I got a job where I had to work with a European team. So it goes.

Susiecat and Mom were up by 8; by 9 we were off to catch Mom's first Disney Bus Transportation ride. We paused along the way for a nice view of the Beach Club Villas over the water.

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We only had to wait around five minutes for the bus. While we were waiting, we were mildly confused by one bus sign. Perhaps it was leased? (Disclaimer: that joke is only funny if you're a computer geek.) Then the Magic Kingdom bus showed up and we hopped on.

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For some reason I never remember that the Magic Kingdom bus goes right to the park. I expect to wind up at the TTC. There's no good reason for this. My brain's just decided that's how the system works and reality is having a hard time making any impact. This time once more, I wound up surprised that we were in front of the Magic Kingdom. After I got oriented we got on the monorail and rode around to the Polynesian.

We got to the Kona Cafe just before Susiecat's family. I probably don't have to sing its praises but just in case: reasonably priced, good food, and you don't have the whole elaborate overhead of a character breakfast. I like character breakfasts and we had one scheduled for later in the trip, but it's a bit of a production when you might just want food and coffee.

Also I am really fond of the Kona Cafe ceiling.

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I had the Samoan and Susiecat had the Tonga Toast. I think Mom also had the Samoan. I am not a strawberry lover so the Tonga Toast is wasted on me but I appreciate it in the abstract. Pulled pork, on the other hand, is right up my alley. My brother-in-law and I split a press pot of Kona coffee, too. So good.

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We all exchanged Christmas presents during the meal. Susiecat's parents got us books, which shows a good understanding of our personalities. I'll admit I had a moment when I wondered why they didn't mail them to us, since it's additional weight for the trip home, but it's nice to do that kind of thing face to face when possible.

Oh, and the waitress was great about DN's allergies again. Yay!

After the meal we all made our goodbyes and DN ran off and hid before anyone noticed he was gone. Clever kid. We found him quickly, made our goodbyes again, and Susiecat and Mom and I walked over to the ferry dock. We took a couple of pictures of the construction work and so forth. I don't know that we'll ever stay in one but the idea of a Polynesian room right over the water is pretty cool.

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I strongly believe the other reason for eating at the Kona Cafe once during a stay is because it's efficient to take the ferry over to the Magic Kingdom. Seven Seas Lagoon is super-pretty and the views of the resorts are lovely. (Also lovely: my wife.)

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We arrived at the Magic Kingdom dock after a very pleasant ride. It was kind of tempting to go back and forth once or twice. Not as tempting as it was to get into the park, though.

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Mom was rather swept away. Epcot's awesome but the Magic Kingdom is the heart of it all.

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After we went through the not-turnstiles, we split up a bit. I grabbed the wheelchair, brought it back to Mom, and went off to figure out where the lockers were. After a quick circle into the park and over to Town Hall and back I realized the lockers were a few feet from the wheelchair/stroller rental. Oh. So I got a locker and put the gift books inside.

Then we did the real first entry into the Magic Kingdom together.

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There's nothing like the first look at the castle and the walk down Main Street.

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We hit some kind of show in front of the castle -- from the timing it should have been Move It! Shake It! Celebrate It! but I don't remember that being the same one. I dunno. Either way we always cut left into Adventureland to start off, so we did that.

One of the nice things about taking Mom on this one was that she noticed a bunch of the cool touches and grace notes that I sometimes overlook due to familiarity. Thus, we got a picture of the Mickey & Minnie topiaries.

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We passed on the Jungle Cruise due to a long wait. Somewhere around here I realized that in my excitement at being in the Magic Kingdom I'd forgotten to get FastPass+ reservations. On the other hand, we weren't sure how long Mom was going to hold out and we had plenty of time, so we decided to keep on with spontaneity in mind. It was pretty crowded but we'd planned for another day of Magic Kingdom later on anyhow.

We did, however, do Pirates. Awesome fun. Susiecat picked up a very stylish hat in the Pirates gift shop. You'll see it later. I gave some thought to a cool red Mickey pirate T-shirt but turned it down. I wish I'd taken a picture, cause I can't remember what I didn't like about it. Ah well.

From there we zipped over to Fantasyland and rode It's A Small World. This was a priority for Mom. Susiecat and I also like it a lot. It's a nostalgia ride!

Doubling back, we checked out Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. It had a 40 minute wait so we skipped that too. Mom got excited about the Liberty Belle Riverboat -- nice, peaceful, and you get to see a lot of the park -- so we reversed course and went back there. We just missed the next boat which gave us time to have lunch. I'd been interested in the waffle sandwiches from Sleepy Hollow and happily volunteered to go get food while Susiecat and Mom rested. I got an excellent picture of umbrellas on the way.

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Mom and Susiecat got sweet and spicy chicken waffles and I got the ham, prosciutto, and Swiss. We also got three sodas. Sleepy Hollow was out of cup trays which made it a bit tricky to get all three meals plus three sodas back to the riverboat dock, but I'm really stubborn and hate admitting that I can't do things so I managed.

The waffles were decent. I won't be obsessed about getting another one next time. I liked the sweet and spicy chicken better than mine; mine had a lot of sauce on it which sort of overwhelmed the flavor of the waffle. It's a pity since the ingredients were generally good and tasted really fresh.

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< Epcot With a Side Order of Family | Main Post | Trapped on East Central Street >
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[Thanlis]

Trapped on East Central Street: 1/20 (part 2)​

After lunch, we went down to catch the Liberty Belle. The cast member on duty showed us down to the bottom level of the dock, which is also where people offload, in order to accomodate Mom's wheelchair. We wound up sitting up on front on the bottom level. Great views. A bit hard to hear the ride patter but that's not what we were focused on. Oh, and Susiecat's hat!

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Mom was completely fascinated by Big Thunder Mountain. She completely wanted to do it and didn't want to do it at the same time. The bit of the Liberty Belle trip where you can see the quickest curve of the coaster was probably the clincher -- after she saw a train going around that bend she felt it wasn't wise. (This picture isn't that bit but I didn't get a good picture of the bit I'm talking about.)

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Like so many parents, Mom and Dad used Tom Sawyer Island as a place to dump the kids and relax for an hour or so in the middle of the day back in the 70s and 80s. This made the riverboat another excellent nostalgia moment for Mom.

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I am also nostalgic about that. I'm actually a bit superstitious about going back to Tom Sawyer Island. I've never been as an adult and I sort of don't want to ruin the memories, you know? I remember they had this great lemonade slushie drink and I'd be sad if it wasn't there anymore.

The Liberty Belle gives me a good taste of the island, though. And, hm, how to put it? There's something in my brain that really enjoys seeing the other side of an attraction. You can't get to Wilson's Cave Inn from Tom Sawyer Island proper, right? So it's very cool to me that taking the Belle shows you the "backside" of Tom Sawyer Island.

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Last but not least, there's that great view of the Haunted Mansion. It is a bit diminished by the queue in front of it. So it goes.

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It was 2 PM by the time we got off the Liberty Belle. We determinedly cut across Fantasyland, skipping New Fantasyland. By the time we got to Cosmic Ray's and Tomorrowland we decided we were tired and weren't going to do any more rides. Better to end the day content than exhausted. We did circle through Tomorrowland rather than being direct, which was lucky, because I saw Push for the first time! And maybe the last, sadly.

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By the time we got back to the castle, the Street Party was definitely going on. Mom was mesmerized. We took the chance to get another castle picture.

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Eventually we pulled Mom away and cut around past Tomorrowland Terrace onto Main Street. In the interests of sampling as many snacks as possible, we stopped into Starbucks and got a peanut butter cupcake and a red velvet cupcake. Both were very good. For some reason I took a picture of these looking straight down at the cupcakes, with the lids of the cupcake holders closed. Odd.

My notes just say "trapped by parade" here. I think this means the Street Party was coming back from the castle towards the park entrance, which seems to match this picture.

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We hid out in East Central Street, finished our cupcakes, and watched people play Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom. I've got to give that a try next visit. There was a totally adorable pair of kids with Elsa and Anna dresses on -- pretty darned common sight this trip. While we were snacking, the Main Street Philharmonic walked past.

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Once everything settled down we went over to the Emporium for some shopping. Mom found a nice Minnie purse for a friend of hers and I got her the Hidden Mickey book to read during the trip. I figured she'd enjoy the insider view of things. Sadly I was unable to convince Susiecat to get a second hat.

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Finally, we showed Mom the Sharing the Magic statue before departing the Magic Kingdom.

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Back at the room, we split up. Mom wanted to swim in the Villas pool. Susiecat and I went up front to Stormalong Bay. I went swimming there for a bit while Susiecat walked around Crescent Lake. It was chilly -- around 65 degrees that day, as I recall -- but given how cold it got later in the week I'm glad I took the chance to try it. The lazy river is way cool!

Susiecat got a ton of amazing pictures on her walk.

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After some discussion, we think the top balcony of the red building just to the left of the Crest O' The Wave sign is where we got engaged. (All together: awwww!)

When we all reunited back at the room, we decided to walk past Beaches & Cream on the off chance that it would be less crowded now that Martin Luther King weekend was winding down. Yeah, not so much. Our backup plan was the Captain's Grille. I hadn't been there before and I was curious. Turns out that it's pricy, as expected, but not as expensive as the Yachtman Steakhouse. It's also really really good.

I started with the potato-cheese gnocchi and had the corvina over a chorizo and vegetable stew for the main course. Susiecat had the seared scallops and sweet potato tortellini with cranberry relish. Mom had the iceberg salad (which was huge) and lump crab cakes.

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I forgot to take a picture of the appetizers and took the first bite of my corvina before I remembered to take pictures of the main courses. They were all excellent. The waitress promised Mom that the crab cakes would be Maryland-style with minimal bread and maximum crab. We lived in Maryland for a couple of years, a few years ago. The waitress was telling the truth.

The cranberry relish on the tortellini was a very nice touch. You can also see the almonds on top of each dollop of relish. Great flavor pairings there. My fish was also great. I want a meal like that to be hearty and really rich, and I figured the chorizo would work very well for that, which it definitely did.

We were too full for dessert but I want to try their desserts next time. There absolutely will be a next time. Not only was the food excellent, it was a nice atmosphere and not at all crowded, which is a big plus if you don't have reservations.

On the way back, I memorialized our failure to get to Beaches & Cream with a picture of the clever little tables outside. Mmm, ice cream.

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Susiecat matched my tired picture taking with a nice picture of the Beach Club lobby chandeliers.

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And rather than take more random pictures of random things, we all went to sleep.

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< Tonga Tonga Tonga Toast | Main Post | Coming soon! >
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[Susiecat]

And here's my "she said" about Day 3!

We got to the Kona Cafe just before Susiecat's family. I probably don't have to sing its praises but just in case: reasonably priced, good food, and you don't have the whole elaborate overhead of a character breakfast. I like character breakfasts and we had one scheduled for later in the trip, but it's a bit of a production when you might just want food and coffee.

True enough! We took the nephew to Ohana two years ago, and it was just a little bit much for all of us. And all I'm going to say is: TONGA TOAST. Seriously. It's one of the Disney foods I look forward to every visit. I think I was the only one at the table to indulge, but that day was my sickest of the whole trip and I had no voice whatsoever. So I deserved some TONGA. Dagnabit.

I strongly believe the other reason for eating at the Kona Cafe once during a stay is because it's efficient to take the ferry over to the Magic Kingdom. Seven Seas Lagoon is super-pretty and the views of the resorts are lovely. (Also lovely: my wife.)

Aw, you. You sweetie.

The boat trips across Seven Seas are to me what hanging out on Crescent Lake is to Thanlis. I could just ride across all day while gawking at the Polynesian and the Contemporary. Nothing says "Disney" to me like the castle, the Contemporary, and the Polynesian. It's just so serene and lovely and uncrowded, at least on the resort boats. Just wonderful.

One of the nice things about taking Mom on this one was that she noticed a bunch of the cool touches and grace notes that I sometimes overlook due to familiarity. Thus, we got a picture of the Mickey & Minnie topiaries.

Yeah! I keep telling Thanlis that I want to spend one trip just checking out the details. Seeing some of the resorts I haven't seen. Maybe taking a behind-the-scenes tour. Disney is so fantastic with the teensy details, and when you're charging toward your next ride, they're often left behind.

We did, however, do Pirates. Awesome fun. Susiecat picked up a very stylish hat in the Pirates gift shop. You'll see it later.

TMI: I get sun poisoning, which is an order of magnitude worse than sunburn. It's awful. Fatigue, rash, etc. So I spend time every morning (and at intervals throughout the day) performing what I think of as "Disney: The Slathering." And here's where I offer a recommendation for the new deodorant stick style sunscreens. It was fantastic to not have goop all over my hands and face, even if people look at you really oddly when they think you're running a stick of deodorant up and down your nose.

From there we zipped over to Fantasyland and rode It's A Small World. This was a priority for Mom. Susiecat and I also like it a lot. It's a nostalgia ride!

I think I had to age out of childhood to really enjoy Small World. Now I just smile and smile.

Mom and Susiecat got sweet and spicy chicken waffles and I got the ham, prosciutto, and Swiss. We also got three sodas. Sleepy Hollow was out of cup trays which made it a bit tricky to get all three meals plus three sodas back to the riverboat dock, but I'm really stubborn and hate admitting that I can't do things so I managed.

Waffle sandwich review! Decent, as Thanlis said. Mine was good as components. The waffle was yummy, the chicken was yummy. That said, they were awful to try and balance on a knee or on a bench and eat. The waffle is so thick and the filling so plentiful that you can't really pick it all up as a thing. And the chicken is very gooey-sticky. Make sure that you get a ton of napkins before heading to your table (wherever you can find one).

Like so many parents, Mom and Dad used Tom Sawyer Island as a place to dump the kids and relax for an hour or so in the middle of the day back in the 70s and 80s. This made the riverboat another excellent nostalgia moment for Mom.

My parents did the same thing. I have no idea where they went. I just remember being 11 or so and feeling a marvelous sense of immersion on that island. I wasn't in Disney World or in Florida. I was just there on that island with all sorts of other kids, and it was marvelous. I don't want to break the spell and check it out again either. Let it live in awesome memories.

My notes just say "trapped by parade" here. I think this means the Street Party was coming back from the castle towards the park entrance, which seems to match this picture.

Haha, to me all parades at Disney are "trapped by parade." I am a parade curmudgeon. There, I said it! We spent one whole afternoon at Disneyland trying to get over to Tomorrowland, and every time a filming project wrapped up, another parade started up again. Taunted by Tomorrowland!

Susiecat got a ton of amazing pictures on her walk.

Aw, thank you again. Crescent Lake is photogenic as all get-out. Though I kind of wish I went swimming, considering how COLD it was the rest of the week.

After some discussion, we think the top balcony of the red building just to the left of the Crest O' The Wave sign is where we got engaged. (All together: awwww!)

Awwww!

Our backup plan was the Captain's Grille. I hadn't been there before and I was curious. Turns out that it's pricy, as expected, but not as expensive as the Yachtman Steakhouse. It's also really really good.

It really was! I'm never sure about the Yacht Club - it has such a businessman vibe, and Disney World turns me into such a dork. I always feel like the Yacht Club wants me to lower my voice. That said, Captain's Grille had excellent service - probably our best waitress of the trip. Plus, the vegetarian entree felt like an actual entree, not just side dishes tossed together. I only rarely toss meat aside, but when I do, I want to feel like the chef cared about me too!

After that, we trundled off to bed and more Nyquil for me. I can't emphasize enough how much fun it was to show all these places to Thanlis's mother. It was wonderful to include her in this world we care about so much.