A very merry, friend filled, unexpected unbirthday trip (report) August/September 2019 - updated Dec 31

[jrmint427]

I’m impressed with how much you got done while tired on day 1!

Now during former visits we had been given a plastic rose for the servers to find the table, but this time we got no such thing. Instead a CastMember came by and matched our bill with a table number and soon enough our lunch was served.

The roses did not work at all when we were there last year (at least 7 CMs thought they had our food before ours actually came out) so I was wondering if they would come up with a better system.

 

[dizneeat]

Happy to follow your newest report.

So glad to have you here!

I do like your idea of a "Budget" trip .

It really started out as a budget trip, but then evolved into a "Budget" trip.
There was always something coming up that I needed to add and a resort that needed "upgrading" as soon as I had put a little more money aside. Yes, it ended up to be quite some trip.

When you are retired may I suggest November as an option. The Christmas decorations start appearing once Halloween is over. By U. S. Thanksgiving everything is decorated. Not to mention the threat of hurricanes is almost non-existent. The weather is usually good ( mid 70s ) . Although we had a trip when we were in the pool the first 4 days but the last 2 a cold front came in and DH needed to buy a ski cap.

That is exactly what we intend to do. Travel much later in the fall or right after New Year's. We did one trip (I had to take unpaid leave) in early December and we loved it! The weather was cool (we even wore our coats one day), but much nicer than at home and I was in love with all the Christmas decorations. I really want to see them again. So pretty!

Jumping on board, I love your reports!

Great that you decided to join us here as well.

I’m impressed with how much you got done while tired on day 1!

We tried. I had way more planned, but the time change (and my age) did us in.

The roses did not work at all when we were there last year (at least 7 CMs thought they had our food before ours actually came out) so I was wondering if they would come up with a better system.

Ah, I see. When we were there last they still had the roses and I was asking for it when we ordered, but they told me our food would find us magically. It is an easier system to just note the table number though.

 

[dizneeat]

Day 3, August 16

Another night ends with a bang - Part 1

The early night had paid off, we were up and ready for breakfast by 8am.
Tom isn’t a huge fan of sweet breakfasts, so he prepared our breakfast items, while I went to do the morning snack credit run. I made my way over to the food court and started to pick up a few items for breakfast.
They were out of Chocolate Croissants but there was a perfect treat that I always love, some Carrot Cake. Tom had asked for Chocolate Milk and the Mandarin Oranges had tickled my fancy as well as some Donut Holes.

Once I had picked up all this stuff I walked over to the cashier. There were lines and just when I had moved forward enough to not change lines they changed the cashier and who should appear? The girl, who had struggled so much the day before. Surely she must have mastered the cash register by now. Well, no, she hadn’t. Same thing as the day before, she had no idea what she was doing. And after we had been stuck for quite a while, another CastMember took pity and helped her working the till. Once I had paid with my snack credits, I filled our drink mugs with coffee and marched back to the room, where breakfast was already waiting.

We took our sweet time to enjoy breakfast and only headed out around 10am.
Remembering our experience with waiting for busses we decided to drive to the Magic Kingdom. About 20 minutes later we arrived at the gates, scanned our Magicbands for free parking and drove in. We were surprised to find parking close to the beginning of a row and headed for the tram. We were so surprised to see people walking, but didn’t give it a second thought. The tram went

and after about 30 seconds it stopped again and we were to get off before the underpass to the Transportation and Ticket center. Okay, this was why people were walking. So we got of the tram and made our way through the underpass and over to bag check.
And then we had to decide if we wanted to use the Monorail or the boat. Well, the line for the Monorail was all up the ramp, so the boat it is. This is when we realized that they had just closed the gate. So we turned around again and up the ramp to the resort Monorail. And here we got lucky as within a minute of us getting up to it a Monorail pulled in and we were even able to snag a seat. It takes a while longer to take the resort Monorail, but it is way more comfortable. Finally we had made it to the Magic Kingdom and were getting off. Down the ramp and soon we were scanning our Magicbands and walked into the park again.
Again, it was crowded,

but we had time to stop for some Photopass pics on Main Street

Click for video

and then we headed to our first FassPass, Buzz Lightyear. There was quite the FastPass line, but it moved very quickly and soon enough we were seated and on our way to fight Zurg. Somehow I never can make out where to shoot, so I really suck at this ride.
Once we got off we still had time for a ride on the Peoplemover.
That is one ride that never gets old. So relaxing.

But while we rode it, we could see the skies getting more grey by the minute. We were hoping it was passing, as we had a lunch reservation, but it was a Festival of Fantasy Parade Viewing package and we were hoping that the parade would not be cancelled because of the weather.
By then it was time to head to Tony’s Town Square for our lunch package .
We signed in and were told to take a seat until our table was ready, but the minute we had actually sat down we were called and led to our table. It was a small table towards the back of the restaurant, but it was clean and the view was nice.
Our waiter came to greet us and explained that even though we were on the regular Dining Plan we could choose a starter, main course and dessert and he left us with the menu to go and fetch us some ice-water. And while he was gone we decided on food and drink and when the water was served we put in our order and enjoyed the air conditioning.
The waiter was fast.
He quickly came back with our drinks,

a

Stella Artois Belgian Pilsner for Tom and a glass of the

Benvolio Pinot Grigio for me. He also brought out some fresh warm

Focaccia Bread and some Olive Oil with dried herbs for dipping. Tom tried a piece, but I really liked it and kept munching on it.
Would have been better to stop myself, because I was getting full on the bread and there were three more courses to come.
Thankfully our starters didn’t take too long to come out. Tom had ordered the

Fried Calamari, Spicy House-Made Pickles and Herb Aioli while I had gone for the

Fried Mozzarella, Hand-Breaded Slices of Herb-Marinated Fresh Mozzarella, With Creamy Tomato Sauce.
What’s not to like about that.
It was delicious.
We quickly cleaned our plates and all too soon our main courses arrived. Tom had ordered the

Roman-Style Steak, Balsamic-Glazed Beef Tenderloin, Topped with Bacon Marmalade, Local Vegetables, and Truffle-Scented Mashed Potatoes. I had done my research and seen pictures of the

Italian Trio, Chicken Parmigiana, Fettuccine Alfredo, and Spaghetti with a Pork-Beef Meatball. It had looked good, so I went to order it.
The plate of food was huge.
And while it was really tasty, it was way too much food for one person and I needed to leave room for dessert.
I had ordered the

Tiramisù, Espresso-soaked Sponge sheet layered with Sweet Mascarpone Cream and served with Chocolate Sauce, which was far off to what an Italian Tiramisu is supposed to be. Tom wasn’t very adventurous and had ordered the

Gelato, an Italian Style Vanilla Ice-Cream. Both desserts were the letdown of the meal, but we were so full from starter and main that we didn’t mind too much. Soon our bill arrived, and with it our tickets for the special parade viewing.

But when we left the restaurant it was raining.

To be continued ....... ​

 

[jenseib]

Late to the party but joining in now

 

[dizneeat]

Late to the party but joining in now

Jen!
You are not late at all, we have only just begun .......

 

[Mopedmom1]

Excited to be following along! Love your trip reports but rarely comment.

 

[TNGirlwCamera]

Following along!

You meal at Tony's looks fantastic! I haven't been in years so we have reservations for our trip in February.

 

[Shadera]

Looking forward to following along!

 

[dizneeat]

Excited to be following along!

Great to have you here!

Love your trip reports but rarely comment.

Thank you for your kind words. And thank you even more for commenting. I LOVE to know my readers. Feel free to chime in.

Following along!

Great to have you here!

You meal at Tony's looks fantastic! I haven't been in years so we have reservations for our trip in February.

It was really good - apart from dessert. We had read many negative reviews, but it really was a great meal and we might have just picked the wrong desserts.

It
Looking forward to following along!

I am happy to have you on board.

 

[dizneeat]

Day 3, August 16

Another night ends with a bang - Part 2

But when we left the restaurant it was raining.
There was still time until the parade, so we hid from the rain in the Emporium for a while, checking out all the merchandise. Around 25 minutes before the parade was about to start we decided to stake out a spot in the designated area.
We asked a Cast Member who was guarding a roped off area where we had to go and she pointed us in one direction.
That was where we walked, asked another Cast Member and she pointed us right back to the first one.
Had to let her know that the other Cast Member just sent us over and she told us that it was the area right in front of the flagpole and opened the rope and let us in. There were already a few people in the area, but no one had claimed the spot where you can see right down Main Street, so we claimed it.
And while we waited for the Festival of Fantasy Parade to start it started to rain again. About 10 minutes before the start of the parade there was an announcement that it would leave 15 minutes late.
Waiting was a bit of a bore as we were now standing there for 40 minutes and we had to put on our ponchos and then a few minutes later had to take them off again, but finally it was announced that the parade would arrive in 15 minutes.
And after an hour of waiting we could see the first glimpses of the parade.

We loved our spot and enjoyed the parade immensely.

When it was over we intended to leave with the masses, but there was such a foot traffic, traffic jam leaving under the railway station that we decided to instead just walk up and enjoy a view of the castle from the railway station. But first we wanted to see the train in the station from up close.

And when we got there we were greeted by one of the nicest and knowledgeable Cast Members we had encountered in a long time and we struck up a conversation. He definitely was in love with trains and knew all the little tidbits that make it even more interesting. And before we knew it we had been chatting for more than half an hour.
When more people came up to see the train we said our goodbyes and finally left the park.
We took the Express Monorail back to the Transportation and Ticket Center and then hiked to our car. And since a tram was already waiting we hopped on board and made the short trip to our stop.
And from there it was just a few steps to our car and a short while later we had made it back to our resort. It was now mid afternoon and we decided to rest for a little while before we were to head out again later that day.

To be continued ....... ​

 

[Mollygirl21]

What an amazing spot for the parade!!

 

[disgeek009]

I don't think I've ever seen parade photos from that perspective before. Great spot!

 

[MinnieWebster]

Great spot for the parade! Love your pictures!

 

[Dentam]

Wow, what an awesome spot to watch the parade from - great pics!!

 

[Mskia]

That spot for the parade was fantastic.

 

[jrmint427]

There were already a few people in the area, but no one had claimed the spot where you can see right down Main Street, so we claimed it.

Awesome view!!

So fun to find a knowledgeable CM to talk about the train with.

 

[jedijill]

I"m here! Great start to your budget trip!

Jill in CO

 

[Minnie&Nana]

Ohmygosh, I made it to the second page! I am SO excited to be back, and hopefully will be able to keep up and even post. ( Typical of many of us with MS, I read and immediately forget what I’ve just read .)

I can’t wait to find out about the CL stays and how you wound up there!

Always such a delight to read your TR, Karin. I think this will put me back in the Disney Spirit again, which has been sadly missing for too long.

What a fabulous spot for the parade! When we take Sophia we’ll have to look into that pkg. While I was not much a fan of the DP (too much food) with dining prices sky high now it might be the wise thing to do.

Would you recommend POP? I stayed there a few times when it was new for MouseFest (a fun December fan gathering that no longer happens) ...it was fine for a long weekend but not sure for longer. I would surely miss a balcony....of course, if the price is right and we need to do a budget trip...

Looking forward to the next installment!

 

[jenseib]

Wow! That spot for the parade was so awesome...Now I am going to have to think about doing that package and try to sit there!

 

[mesgram]

I'm glad the parade didn't get rained out, you had an awesome view. Looking forword to the rest of your trip report!