Alright, so after we hung out at the pool for awhile and relaxed in our room and watched some more lame comedies and some amazing Taco Bell (we don't have it around here, ok?), we were ready to head back to DCA at about 6:15 for our dinner reservation!
Jason wanted to go on Screamin', but I was feeling all relaxed after our lazy afternoon and didn't want to be shocked away! No, I wasn't chicken, OK? There's a new joke from the beach wedding we went to: "I'm NOT crying, I just have sand in my eye!"
As we walked towards the pier from the GC entrance I saw the new Ariel's Adventure ride, with only a '5 minute wait' aka, walk on! I love the new building and the tile work, so beautiful with the shells in it and the cute mosaic borders. Didn't have my camera out, so no pics. This ride was cute, nothing overly exciting, but it's from my era of Disney movies, so I knew all the music etc. so it was nostalgic for me
That was over quick! We went to check the line for Toy Story, but it was a bit long for before dinner. So we walked over to Mickey's Fun Wheel and got in the non-death line for the stationary seats. We picked the perfect time, sunset! I was surprised how windy it was at the top though. We encountered a really funny CM here, always nice to see them having a good time. He used the "hey, don't forget your seatbelts!" line. Umm, there are none?!?!
After that Jason wanted to try a boardwalk game, so he went for the baseball toss. And..... didn't win. But we did see a woman earlier that day in DTD with the giant wiener dog over her shoulder, it was so funny!
Our Ariel's Grotto reservation was at 7:20, so we waited about 30 seconds with our buzzer then went down the staircase. It was nice decor down there, I didn't take any photos though because it was somewhat dark and I didn't want to flash the whole room (Ha! Flash!) But I did get some food pics.
We decided on non-alcoholic drinks this time because it was already a fairly expensive meal. I like lemonade anyway!
So once we got our drinks they brought out the bread and three dips, the pesto was great! The sourdough bread was yummy on the top half, but a bit too hard/chewy on the bottom. But they gave us a HUGE loaf for two people so it wasn't much of a problem.
Pretty much immediately after the bread the appetizer tower arrived. We chose the meat and shellfish.
Everything here was good. I've just started to like olives, so we fought over those. The chorizo and cheese were good. I find prosciutto a bit rich when it's not cooked, so I only nibbled at that. The seafood was fresh and well cooked, but the drizzled sauce was pretty tasteless, a red seafood sauce would have been better for me. The salad was good, but after all the appies we didn't have much room for it, the dressing was flavorful but light and we did pick at it a bit throughout our meals.
I ordered the Santa Maria Style Tri-Tip. It was served with cheddar mashed potatoes and sauteed zucchini squash. It had a peppercorn crust and was served with some pico de gallo, so it was fairly spicy between those two. But it was cooked to a perfect medium rare, very tender and delicious! I love it. And I forgot to take pics, but I'm sure there's some of the Food Pics thread.
Jason got the Cioppino: "A fragrant bowl of the ocean's finest, including lobster claw, pink scallops, redfish, green-lip mussels and shrimp, plus Bilbao chorizo bathed in a robust fire-roasted tomato broth" and it was served with (more) bread. He liked it, but due to the broth found it to be a bit smaller than he would have liked. The flavor was good though, and the seafood well cooked. He had a bit of my meal to help fill him up.
Then finally we got to dessert!
This included counter clockwise from left: Crunchy chocolate triangle, Tiramisu in a chocolate cup, chocolate lava cake, green apple mousse, macaroons, passion fruit mousse and fresh berries and white chocolate film reel in the middle. (My memory isn't perfect here, so I might be wrong on a few of these!)
I found the chocolate desserts to be a bit rich, but liked the triangle the best. I LOVED the passion fruit one, the fruit was perfectly ripe and delicious and the macaroons were SO good, I ate them both!
When she brought the check she didn't bring the WOC FPs, so I asked and she brought them to us with our change.
(Note: I actually had looked at all ears before going and thought it was $36.99, but their menu wasn't quite accurate and it was actually $39.99, my fault, not researching enough!)
Oh, she brought us the 9pm FPs, not the 10:15 like I wanted. DH pipped up and said they were fine, it was only 8:15 and we had lots of time, plus, she said "they don't line up until 8:30". Well, I knew her statement wasn't what I had read, but not wanting to be a brat, I just sucked it up and accepted the 9pm show.
So to sum up, mediocre service, but pretty delicious food. A bit expensive, but plenty of food. We give it a....
We walked right over to the line and waited until about 8:35 to walk down to the preferred dining area. We ended up in about the third "row" in the front section behind some kids so we had a pretty unobstructed view.
Ok, this is where I should say: I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW WET WE GOT!!! Not sprinkled upon, not misted, not damp, WET. ALL OVER, HAIR DRIPPING WET! I guess I shoulda read the super-thread (?) But, it was still fantastic and we both loved it
We've never seen DL's Fantasmic, and I know that's the heated debate, but we liked this one and can't compare the two. We didn't take any photos, too busy watching, and also not wanting to ruin our camera!
We got this shot before the show started
So easy to take pretty shots of the Fun Wheel!
After this we followed the wet masses out of the park thru the GC. It was nice when we stopped in front of the sliding doors to let a couple through on their scooters, they thanked us and said it was the first time something nice like that happened to them all day. Yay, we're nice
See? Told you I was feeling lazy by this time, not many pics, sorry!
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So let's sum up our first day: 13 rides in DL before 2 pm (including train and monorail), then we slacked and only rode two rides after 6 pm and saw one show. Well, I thought it was a productive day and it seemed like we rode tons of rides without waits
And we had two Minnie meals and one Mickey snack.
Next up, a big breakfast and some DCA morning time.
I'm still working on mine from 2006 and haven't even started 2007 and 2010. For some reason I seem to be stuck. Looking forward to reading the rest of your report.
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but we got quite a few different combinations on the three times we rode it. 
When all the waits are really short, 25-30 minutes seems too long for these lil rides. 
Anyhow I have totally enjoyed it and all the pictures. You have a very fun entertaining way of writing. Can't wait for the next installment. We will be there Sept 26-30 although only getting in the parks three days. This is so fun to read as a mood setter. 
