toodycat
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 4, 2008
- Messages
- 1,648
Background: DH and I have been visiting WDW with our son since he was 6. He is now 17. We decided to take a four day vacation in September ,coinciding with the Rosh Hashanah school holiday, Epcot Food & Wine, Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, WDW's 40th anniversary and a Florida friend's visit to WDW. In spite of that, the plan was to take it easy and do some of the things that we never got to do when our vacations were all about character meals and fast passing just the right attractions. Although all three of us are essentially just tall children, these days DS is more about taking in the whole park and noticing the changes in theming and design or checking out the technology to wonder how the magic occurs. While the days of the autograph book and pins are long gone, he still loves WDW and do we.
Thursday: Arrival: We flew in on Jetblue Thursday morning. I had been vacillating between taking Disney's Magical Express and renting a car. Hertz had originally quoted us a price of $400 for four days, so we signed up for DME. Then, Budget sent me an offer for four days for $100 and we were off the DME and back in a rental car, a Mazda 6 to be specific. It was a lovely ride and we are considering buying one. We arrived at the GF a bit after noon. As we pulled in, the CM at the gate said, "Welcome Home." The car valets took our car quickly and we proceeded to check in. The CM behind the desk was extremely friendly and jovial, though he would neither confirm nor deny rumors of a GF DVC project. (The construction seems to confirm it, though.)
Our room:Our room, Sago Cay 5201 was ready. This was the first time we had stayed at the GF in a standard room. Our previous visits have been in lagoon view or at Sugarloaf. However, I had booked this room, using the 40% room only summer offer, and, at $285 per night for the weeknights and $315 for the weekend, it was just fine! 5201 is the second floor, corner room closest to Gasparilla's. The room had two beds, a day bed, a chair, desk, flat screen TV, plenty of drawer space, bathroom with twin sinks, closet with waffle robes, safe and iron. Though it wasn't a room with theme park or lagoon view, the balcony had a good view of the marina and Gasparilla's. Everything was in order, so we dropped our bags, got changed and headed to Blizzard Beach.
Blizzard Beach: Honestly, we hadn't been to a water park since our visit in 2002. (We are always too busy or else it rains.) We still had never-expiring park passes from that trip, so we had the CM at the Blizzard Beach admission office check. We had two days of water park admissions left. Score! She upgraded DS' ticket to an adult pass and we were off to float in Cross Country Creek for nearly two hours. Nothing decompresses you after a flight quite like an inner tube and a lazy river. After that, we spent the rest of the time in Melt-Away Bay which was delightful. The waves are great fun, but never rough. I had a blast rocking back and forth on my inner tube. On the way out of BB, DS bought a Finding Nemo "Mine-Mine-Mine" beach towel.
That night: We drove over to the YC for dinner at the Captain's Grill. A few friends have been telling that we haven't lived until we've stayed at the BC or YC, so we decided to check it out. While waiting for our table to be available at the Captain's Grill, we sat in the YC lobby. While it is very tasteful and understated, we weren't sure we would ever find ourselves hanging out in it the way we do with the GF lobby. While pleasant, the YC lobby seemed much less inviting. Dinner at the Captain's Grill was quite good,though DH bemoaned the use of bowls as plates which made it more awkward for him to keep his foods separate and cut his fish. The prix fixe at the Captain's Grill was an excellent deal. I had the Green Goddess salad, the chicken with greens, bacon and white beans and the turtle cheesecake. All were excellent. DS had the crab cake, pork chop and cheesecake. DH enjoyed his chowder, salmon and gelato. I also had an amazing glass of Cakebread Chardonnay. Our server was a little awkward to deal with...not tremendously friendly and it wasn't always clear that he understood us, but ultimately no problem. The atmosphere of the restaurant is the same austere Cape Cod vibe that the lobby has. It was charming and certainly consistent, but I do wish they'd use tablecloths. There were more than a few crying babies, causing DS to comment, "I don't think I'll bring my children here until they are at least five and can appreciate it." After dinner, we walked around the property and the adjoining BC, scoped our SAB, admired the lights of the Boardwalk. While we enjoyed the atmosphere and appreciated the convenience to all the Boardwalk and Epcot have to offer, we all agreed that the YC and BC would probably never win us away from the GF. We drove back to the GF to get our first Mickey pops and some rest before our very busy Friday.
Friday: Although we had asked for a 7 a.m. wake up call, we were awakened somewhat earlier by the weep-weep-weep of delivery trucks backing up. Room 5201 is adjacent to the GF's loading dock! Luckily, all of us are heavy enough sleepers to just roll over and fall back asleep, but I would not recommend this room if you have a baby or toddler. The good part of this location is that our balcony had a great view of the mousekeeper's parasol parade.
In the past, we've stayed at Sugarloaf and had the continental breakfast there or DS was little and we had breakfast with characters at 1900 Park Fare or Chef Mickey's a lot. This time, we had our breakfast at Gasparilla's. Their Bounty Platter has scrambled eggs, home fries, pancakes, biscuit, sausage, bacon and a Mickey waffle for $7.99. We found that two of these fed the three of us with leftovers.
After breakfast, we took the monorail to Epcot and dashed straight to our favorite attraction, Soarin'. We were able to ride it twice before the Food & Wine Fest started up and we began the true purpose of our day: snacking. In Australia, we had shrimp on the barbie and a decent Chardonnay; in Argentina, there were delicious empanadas; in Italy, DS chowed down on the ravioli bolognese; in Morocco, I had the chicken in some sort of phyllo dough and a superior baklava; in the Caribbean, DH checked out the jerk drumstick and in Germany, DS sampled some fantastic apple strudel. We also made some stops in Mexico and Norway to ride the attractions. Both were really fun. We left Epcot around two in the afternoon. By this time, we were hot and full. We swam in the GF's courtyard pool before our 5 p.m. dinner at the Grand Floridian Cafe. DS had the shrimp and pasta entree, I had the mixed greens---the pistachio nuts are a nice touch--- and some mahi-mahi in brown butter. DS had the lamb. All our entrees were excellent.
After dinner, we took the monorail to the Magic Kingdom for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. What a great event that is. Children and adults alike were in some terrific costumes. We went straight to the Buzz Lightyear Attraction and the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor, before heading over to the Haunted Mansion. On the way, we passed multiple trick or treat stations with cast members being more than generous with the candy. Bull's Eye, Woody and Jessie were having a Halloween line dancing party in Frontierland. It was adorable to watch the little kids dancing with them. At the Haunted Mansion, the ghost bride was outside, keeping an amusing dialogue going with the guests. All guests were offered the choice of walking through the graveyard or not. We chose the graveyard. Sadly, it was the line that died. We were all standing there for about 15 minutes with no movement at all. Folks started to just walk out as the air was hot and stagnant, the line was stopped and it was getting to be time to stake out our spot for the parade.
We watched the parade from the Liberty Square area. It was phenomenal. We loved the headless horseman, the dancing gravediggers, Winnie the Pooh and friends in their Halloween costumes, especially Eeyore as a clown. All the villains were in attendance. Cruella Deville was perfect as was Jafar. The parade was the highlight of the party, in my opinion. After that, we visited "Small World," a favorite of mine from the 64 World's Fair when I was two and Mickey's Philharmagic, my son's favorite attraction. We chose to watch the fireworks from a bench next to the Dumbo attraction. This was not the best place because they seemed to come from both sides of this spot and we found ourselves looking back and forth to see the fireworks. After that, we rode the Winnie the Pooh attraction, bought some Mickey bars to cool off and took a launch back to the Grand Floridian.
I had been a little worried about missing one of my most adored traditions on the Seven Seas Lagoon, the Electrical Water Pageant. I needn't have been concerned. As we were boating back to the GF, we had a perfect view of the pageant. Our captain told us how the pageant was only supposed to run for the first month at WDW, but that it has gone on every night since 1971 and that this was its 39th year and 364th day as the next day was WDW's 40th anniversary. He told us that even on 9/11 when all the parks were closed, the water staff decided that the electrical water pageant should run anyway and displayed those lights on those barges to thousands of guests on the beaches at the Poly, Contemporary and GF for whom the pageant was the only magical event of that somber day. He was so interesting that I left my Coach sunglasses on the boat.
Saturday: We were so exhausted from our busy day that we slept right through the weep-weep-weep of the trucks and had barely enough time to dress and take the monorail to MK for the 40th anniversary parade and events. We were given 40th anniversary buttons and maps at the gate. There was no time for breakfast, so we had 40th anniversary cupcakes as our first meal of the day. The 40th anniversary parade was spectacular. It harked back to previous anniversary parades and included every Disney character I could think of. To give you an idea of how comprehensive this parade was, the suffragettes from Mary Poppins were marching! After the parade, Meg Crofton spoke, but we couldn't really hear her. We all joined the Dapper Dans in singing "When you wish upon a star." After that, there were day time fireworks. I know it sounds crazy and it was great to be there for a Disney milestone, but the park was so jam-packed and we were still so tired that we left after that and spent the rest of the day by the pool at the GF and the early evening listening to the pianist playing Disney tunes in the GF lobby.
That evening, we met up with friends at the AKL for a terrific dinner at Boma.We were a little early, so we spent some time watching the animals in the savannah and chatting about American World War II aircraft with a cast member from Zimbabwe. After our dinner, we spent some time catching up with our friends while rocking in the rocking chairs around the AKL's outdoor fire pit. It is an amazing resort and my favorite after the GF.
Sunday (departure day): We woke up and shared our Bounty Platters and then drove to Fantasia Gardens for some mini-golf. Mini-golf is something we all like, but we've never had the time to play at WDW before. What a great course! We loved the water features and classical music from Fantasia. I would definitely do that again. After that,we walked around the Swan and Dolphin for a while. The GF had given us a late check-out of 1:30, so there was time for one more swim before we packed and left for Downtown Disney where we did some shopping and had lunch at Wolfgang Puck's. Pumpkin ravioli? Awesome! Puckburger...not so much. It was kind of grey and overdone and DH had to send it back. The manager was very courteous and took it off our bill.
This was another fantastic Disney visit. I feel confident that no matter how old he gets, DS will not get tired of WDW and neither will we. I'm hoping to be there for the 80th anniversary of WDW!
Thursday: Arrival: We flew in on Jetblue Thursday morning. I had been vacillating between taking Disney's Magical Express and renting a car. Hertz had originally quoted us a price of $400 for four days, so we signed up for DME. Then, Budget sent me an offer for four days for $100 and we were off the DME and back in a rental car, a Mazda 6 to be specific. It was a lovely ride and we are considering buying one. We arrived at the GF a bit after noon. As we pulled in, the CM at the gate said, "Welcome Home." The car valets took our car quickly and we proceeded to check in. The CM behind the desk was extremely friendly and jovial, though he would neither confirm nor deny rumors of a GF DVC project. (The construction seems to confirm it, though.)
Our room:Our room, Sago Cay 5201 was ready. This was the first time we had stayed at the GF in a standard room. Our previous visits have been in lagoon view or at Sugarloaf. However, I had booked this room, using the 40% room only summer offer, and, at $285 per night for the weeknights and $315 for the weekend, it was just fine! 5201 is the second floor, corner room closest to Gasparilla's. The room had two beds, a day bed, a chair, desk, flat screen TV, plenty of drawer space, bathroom with twin sinks, closet with waffle robes, safe and iron. Though it wasn't a room with theme park or lagoon view, the balcony had a good view of the marina and Gasparilla's. Everything was in order, so we dropped our bags, got changed and headed to Blizzard Beach.
Blizzard Beach: Honestly, we hadn't been to a water park since our visit in 2002. (We are always too busy or else it rains.) We still had never-expiring park passes from that trip, so we had the CM at the Blizzard Beach admission office check. We had two days of water park admissions left. Score! She upgraded DS' ticket to an adult pass and we were off to float in Cross Country Creek for nearly two hours. Nothing decompresses you after a flight quite like an inner tube and a lazy river. After that, we spent the rest of the time in Melt-Away Bay which was delightful. The waves are great fun, but never rough. I had a blast rocking back and forth on my inner tube. On the way out of BB, DS bought a Finding Nemo "Mine-Mine-Mine" beach towel.
That night: We drove over to the YC for dinner at the Captain's Grill. A few friends have been telling that we haven't lived until we've stayed at the BC or YC, so we decided to check it out. While waiting for our table to be available at the Captain's Grill, we sat in the YC lobby. While it is very tasteful and understated, we weren't sure we would ever find ourselves hanging out in it the way we do with the GF lobby. While pleasant, the YC lobby seemed much less inviting. Dinner at the Captain's Grill was quite good,though DH bemoaned the use of bowls as plates which made it more awkward for him to keep his foods separate and cut his fish. The prix fixe at the Captain's Grill was an excellent deal. I had the Green Goddess salad, the chicken with greens, bacon and white beans and the turtle cheesecake. All were excellent. DS had the crab cake, pork chop and cheesecake. DH enjoyed his chowder, salmon and gelato. I also had an amazing glass of Cakebread Chardonnay. Our server was a little awkward to deal with...not tremendously friendly and it wasn't always clear that he understood us, but ultimately no problem. The atmosphere of the restaurant is the same austere Cape Cod vibe that the lobby has. It was charming and certainly consistent, but I do wish they'd use tablecloths. There were more than a few crying babies, causing DS to comment, "I don't think I'll bring my children here until they are at least five and can appreciate it." After dinner, we walked around the property and the adjoining BC, scoped our SAB, admired the lights of the Boardwalk. While we enjoyed the atmosphere and appreciated the convenience to all the Boardwalk and Epcot have to offer, we all agreed that the YC and BC would probably never win us away from the GF. We drove back to the GF to get our first Mickey pops and some rest before our very busy Friday.
Friday: Although we had asked for a 7 a.m. wake up call, we were awakened somewhat earlier by the weep-weep-weep of delivery trucks backing up. Room 5201 is adjacent to the GF's loading dock! Luckily, all of us are heavy enough sleepers to just roll over and fall back asleep, but I would not recommend this room if you have a baby or toddler. The good part of this location is that our balcony had a great view of the mousekeeper's parasol parade.
In the past, we've stayed at Sugarloaf and had the continental breakfast there or DS was little and we had breakfast with characters at 1900 Park Fare or Chef Mickey's a lot. This time, we had our breakfast at Gasparilla's. Their Bounty Platter has scrambled eggs, home fries, pancakes, biscuit, sausage, bacon and a Mickey waffle for $7.99. We found that two of these fed the three of us with leftovers.
After breakfast, we took the monorail to Epcot and dashed straight to our favorite attraction, Soarin'. We were able to ride it twice before the Food & Wine Fest started up and we began the true purpose of our day: snacking. In Australia, we had shrimp on the barbie and a decent Chardonnay; in Argentina, there were delicious empanadas; in Italy, DS chowed down on the ravioli bolognese; in Morocco, I had the chicken in some sort of phyllo dough and a superior baklava; in the Caribbean, DH checked out the jerk drumstick and in Germany, DS sampled some fantastic apple strudel. We also made some stops in Mexico and Norway to ride the attractions. Both were really fun. We left Epcot around two in the afternoon. By this time, we were hot and full. We swam in the GF's courtyard pool before our 5 p.m. dinner at the Grand Floridian Cafe. DS had the shrimp and pasta entree, I had the mixed greens---the pistachio nuts are a nice touch--- and some mahi-mahi in brown butter. DS had the lamb. All our entrees were excellent.
After dinner, we took the monorail to the Magic Kingdom for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. What a great event that is. Children and adults alike were in some terrific costumes. We went straight to the Buzz Lightyear Attraction and the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor, before heading over to the Haunted Mansion. On the way, we passed multiple trick or treat stations with cast members being more than generous with the candy. Bull's Eye, Woody and Jessie were having a Halloween line dancing party in Frontierland. It was adorable to watch the little kids dancing with them. At the Haunted Mansion, the ghost bride was outside, keeping an amusing dialogue going with the guests. All guests were offered the choice of walking through the graveyard or not. We chose the graveyard. Sadly, it was the line that died. We were all standing there for about 15 minutes with no movement at all. Folks started to just walk out as the air was hot and stagnant, the line was stopped and it was getting to be time to stake out our spot for the parade.
We watched the parade from the Liberty Square area. It was phenomenal. We loved the headless horseman, the dancing gravediggers, Winnie the Pooh and friends in their Halloween costumes, especially Eeyore as a clown. All the villains were in attendance. Cruella Deville was perfect as was Jafar. The parade was the highlight of the party, in my opinion. After that, we visited "Small World," a favorite of mine from the 64 World's Fair when I was two and Mickey's Philharmagic, my son's favorite attraction. We chose to watch the fireworks from a bench next to the Dumbo attraction. This was not the best place because they seemed to come from both sides of this spot and we found ourselves looking back and forth to see the fireworks. After that, we rode the Winnie the Pooh attraction, bought some Mickey bars to cool off and took a launch back to the Grand Floridian.
I had been a little worried about missing one of my most adored traditions on the Seven Seas Lagoon, the Electrical Water Pageant. I needn't have been concerned. As we were boating back to the GF, we had a perfect view of the pageant. Our captain told us how the pageant was only supposed to run for the first month at WDW, but that it has gone on every night since 1971 and that this was its 39th year and 364th day as the next day was WDW's 40th anniversary. He told us that even on 9/11 when all the parks were closed, the water staff decided that the electrical water pageant should run anyway and displayed those lights on those barges to thousands of guests on the beaches at the Poly, Contemporary and GF for whom the pageant was the only magical event of that somber day. He was so interesting that I left my Coach sunglasses on the boat.
Saturday: We were so exhausted from our busy day that we slept right through the weep-weep-weep of the trucks and had barely enough time to dress and take the monorail to MK for the 40th anniversary parade and events. We were given 40th anniversary buttons and maps at the gate. There was no time for breakfast, so we had 40th anniversary cupcakes as our first meal of the day. The 40th anniversary parade was spectacular. It harked back to previous anniversary parades and included every Disney character I could think of. To give you an idea of how comprehensive this parade was, the suffragettes from Mary Poppins were marching! After the parade, Meg Crofton spoke, but we couldn't really hear her. We all joined the Dapper Dans in singing "When you wish upon a star." After that, there were day time fireworks. I know it sounds crazy and it was great to be there for a Disney milestone, but the park was so jam-packed and we were still so tired that we left after that and spent the rest of the day by the pool at the GF and the early evening listening to the pianist playing Disney tunes in the GF lobby.
That evening, we met up with friends at the AKL for a terrific dinner at Boma.We were a little early, so we spent some time watching the animals in the savannah and chatting about American World War II aircraft with a cast member from Zimbabwe. After our dinner, we spent some time catching up with our friends while rocking in the rocking chairs around the AKL's outdoor fire pit. It is an amazing resort and my favorite after the GF.
Sunday (departure day): We woke up and shared our Bounty Platters and then drove to Fantasia Gardens for some mini-golf. Mini-golf is something we all like, but we've never had the time to play at WDW before. What a great course! We loved the water features and classical music from Fantasia. I would definitely do that again. After that,we walked around the Swan and Dolphin for a while. The GF had given us a late check-out of 1:30, so there was time for one more swim before we packed and left for Downtown Disney where we did some shopping and had lunch at Wolfgang Puck's. Pumpkin ravioli? Awesome! Puckburger...not so much. It was kind of grey and overdone and DH had to send it back. The manager was very courteous and took it off our bill.
This was another fantastic Disney visit. I feel confident that no matter how old he gets, DS will not get tired of WDW and neither will we. I'm hoping to be there for the 80th anniversary of WDW!
