Well, here we are. The last day of my "trip of a lifetime". *SOB*
The kids are ready to go home, but I am sure not. When I retire, I am gonna buy an RV and live at the Fort all winter. Disney can hire me to sell balloons or something... I just wanna live at WDW!!
Ok, anyhow... got up early this morning, as normal, and got my iced tea. Tried to get a bit of a jump on the repacking, so I wouldn't have to stay up till all hours trying to get it done that night! I got everyone woke up and shuffled in and out of the shower and dressed. We had a 9:10 ADR at Chef Mickey's, so we caught a bus to MK, then monorailed off to the Contemporary. Here's Alyssa, all ready to go, dressed in one of the outfits that grandma made for her!
We disembarked at the Contemporary right on time, bypassed the "Photo Op", and were shown to our table. Chef Mickey's was very busy this morning, but the characters still did a wonderful job circulating to the tables and spending time with the kids (and maybe the not-so-little-kids who adore Donald Duck and were really glad to see him *cough*ME*cough*
).
After breakfast, we wasted no time in hopping back on the monorail and heading off to Epcot. Food and Wine, baybee!
I got some awesome shots from the monorail while we were travelling above Future World.
We bypassed Future World, and headed in to World Showcase. We rode Maelstrom and Gran Fiesta again (had I mentioned I love Donald?), and started scoping out the Food and Wine carts. I have to say I wasn't very impressed with how these were set up. They seemed to be lacking in efficient move-the-line-along strategy. I will admit, silly me had underestimated HOW popular the first day of F&W would be. The park wasn't very crowded at all, but EVERYONE who was in the park was in line at the F&W booths. I would have loved to try more things, but I just didn't have time to stand in those lines, and my family didn't have the patience to wait for me if I did. I did try the Potstickers in China, and the Baklava in Morocco, and they were both very good. We also got Kaki Gori from Japan... those are my fav treats in all of Epcot. I *wanted* a lobster roll from the cart in front of the American Adventure, but decided to pass, upon seeing the line stretched waaaaayyyy out to the America Gardens amphitheater. SIGH. Another year. On our way through that half of World Showcase, we also paused in China to tour the Tomb Warriors exhibit... VERY cool.
Today was the grand opening of the National Treasures display in the American pavilion, and we were really hoping to be able to see it. Alas, it was not to be; we had found ALL of the other people in WDW who were not in line in the food courts. They had the Rotunda packed full of official Epcot Suits, and dignitaries, and people watching the official opening. Speeches were made, songs were sung, a lovely Native American fellow even drummed, sang, and blessed the gallery. It was all very nice, really, but it was REALLY dragging on (we sat in there for over an hour and they were still going strong) so we thought we would maybe go catch the next scheduled showing of the American Adventure, then go into the gallery afterwards. Only problem was, the rotunda was so packed you could barely get in the door, let alone make your way to the stairs to go to the theater. In the end, we gave up and left. I am very sad
that we didn't get to see the American Adventure OR the gallery... just another reason to plan another trip, right?!
We continued meandering through World Showcase, with the eventual goal of Canada for our 2:50 Le Cellier ADR. On our way, we stopped to view the fellow that does the acrobatic balancing bit with the chairs. He picked Alyssa to be the child that is supposed to bring him the next chair (but it is broken). Of course, he mock-scolded her for "breaking" his chair - and she was broken-hearted! She put on a brave face till he sent her back to us, then she was almost in tears! "I really didn't break it mommy, it was already broken!" *sniffle, snuffle* I had to reassure her that he was just playing with her and being silly for the crowd... he knew she didn't break it and it was all OK... poor child, traumatized by a street performer.
Finally, we arrived in Canada. We were a bit early for our ADR, so we saw the newly-revamped CircleVision movie, and were quite greatful to just be in out of the sun. It was SO hot!! We were seated for our ADR right on time, and had a lovely meal. We also had a wonderful server, who was from a town just north of us, right across the Canadian border! When she asked where we were from, and we said Montana, then she asked where in Montana, and we told her Kalispell, she got all excited! "I love Kalispell, we used to come across the border to go shopping in Kalispell every summer!" She said we were the first people from Kalispell she had ever met in WDW.
After our meal, we decided to head out of Epcot. We had really done everything we wanted to do, or were going to be able to do. We still wanted to hit Downtown Disney for some end of trip shopping. So we waved a fond "Goodbye till next time" to Epcot (
) and headed back to the monorail. We disembarked from the monorail at the Poly and waited for a bus to DTD. Got a great monorail shot as it sped by overhead.
We spent the rest of our evening at DTD, doing our shopping and having fun at the stores. Ariana and Alyssa narrowly escaped from the Pirates at World of Disney:
And then each had to take a turn at the wheel:
Caitlyn's favorite store in DTD is the
Lego store, and she had a blast playing there:
.
Finally, we stopped in at Goofy's Candy Company and blew a bunch of snack credits. We got a pretzel and marshmallows covered in all kinds of things, several different kinds of fudge, and some suckers and candy bars for the girls to share with their friends and teachers at school.
All tired out, we rode the boat back to POR. One last ride, on a beautiful evening, with a gorgeous sunset. WAAAAHHH!!! Back at the resort, James took the girls swimming one last time, while I stayed in the room to get things packed up (my suggestion - get them out of my hair LOL). We were early to bed, because bell services would be at our door at 4 AM (!!) to collect us and our luggage. After a very short night, I woke everyone at 3 to shower and get dressed and pack up our last bits and pieces. Bell services was right on time, and a very nice young man (but WAY too chipper for 4 AM) helped us load everything into his golf cart, then drove us down to the main building to meet Magical Express at 4:30. This is how Port Orleans looked at that hour of the morning:
And this is how WE looked - we don't wanna go home!!
Nearly everything went smoothly on our trip home - the kids all slept on our first flight... 4 AM is WAY too early!
We had terrible turbulance landing in Salt Lake City, and on most of our flight from SLC to Spokane... I hate flying when everything is being bounced and jerked around... not to mention Caitlyn suffers from motion sickness and we had an Unfortunate Incident
. James managed to catch/stifle nearly everything using his coat (oops), but it still necessitated a changes of clothes for Caitie.
We landed in Spokane and our friends were there to meet us with my minivan; (no train, yay!) they had driven over to Spokane and spent the weekend shopping before coming to pick us up. We all went to dinner at Red Lobster, then drove home. We were all SO cold!! When we got on Magical Express at 4:30 that morning, it was already almost 80° with almost 100% humidity... we were all dripping before we even got on the bus. Then when we left the airport in Spokane 12 hours later (give or take a time zone or two) it was 45°, windy with some flakes of snow in the mountains. BRRRRR!! But we were home, back to real life!
THE FOOD REPORT
Chef Mickey's OK food, nothing outstanding, very much like any other breakfast we had that week. Great character interaction, lovely setting. Truth be told, we were all a bit tired of eating out by this time.
Le Cellier Although we enjoyed this meal very much, we didn't think it was quite the ALL-THAT that the reviews made it out to be. Then again, we have some very good steakhouses in Montana, so maybe our MEAT standards are set a little higher. James had a smoothie, the beef-barley soup, and the 10 oz NY strip. He said everything was very good. I had the cheese soup (
to die for with the whole wheat breadsticks), the chicken cesear salad, an iced tea, and creme brulee. I was a little disappointed in the salad; to me, a salad should be *cut up* lettuce, not a head of lettuce slapped whole on a plate with dressing poured on top. My salad I got at WPE on our first day was MUCH better. Ariana had a shrimp cocktail (which she didn't like, because of the wasabi - I tried to warn her but she was being 13), the 10oz NY Strip steak, a shake, and the Chocolate Moose. The moose was too darn cute!!! She said he was tasty too. The little girls each had carrot and celery sticks, and make your own sundaes. For entrees Alyssa had the kids' steak, and Caitie had a hot dog. I would like to try LeCellier again, but hopefully during dinner time. A lot of the things we would have liked to have tried weren't available at lunch. Cash total on this meal would have been $153 - hooray for the
DDP!
WHAT WE LEARNED
Never try to see something on its opening day. Both Food and Wine, and the National Treasures gallery were basically A Miss for us that day, because of the huge crowds and opening day headaches.
Bring an extra, empty duffel bag with you when you pack. I did, and I was SO glad for it... we would never have been able to get all of our purchases home with us without it.
If you have to leave really early in the morning, the food courts aren't open yet. We would have REALLY liked to refill our mugs one more time before we left... some coffee and tea would have been SO welcome at 4 AM. But everything was locked up tight as a drum. Just my personal opinion, but I think the refill stations should be accessible 24 hours a day. I would understand not being able to buy food or drinks till a certain time, but I should be able to refill my mug.
Coming up in a day or two: Our final thoughts on just about everything. On-property, DDP, vacation in general.
After breakfast we did some shopping in the RFC gift shop; they were having some really good sales, and we picked up several gifts for friends and family here.
After we checked in for our ADR, we seated outselves in the lounge and waited to be buzzed on our pager. It was very crowded, so we waited a while, but we had the lounge singer to entertain us. "Tiny bubbles..." 
The waitress very kindly gave me the recipe for the dressing and the banana bread pudding. We loved all of the meats except the sausages. The were tender, and flavorful, and done just right. Our waitress said most people don't like the sausages, and that they will be removed from the menu soon and replaced with big shrimp on the skewers. We topped it off with the banana bread pudding, which we found to be just fantastic. I was so stuffed I could hardly move but darn it I was GOING to eat this desert. Yum-O! (to quote Rachael Ray LOL!) We loved Ohana, and would definitely return here again.
