Cruising, Wining, and Disney Dining - Two 2012 PTRs in One! **TR LINK UP**

[Imagineer5]

That hut is awesome! Love it!

Great scotland updates - those beds are WAY too close together for strangers! WOW! The nighttime entertainment is so neat, looks like fun, minus the haggis WITH whiskey. Yuck to both! LOL.

Via Napoli is SO GOOD. If you're not absolutely ravenous, you could pay OOP for this meal and split a pizza- they are HUGE. I brought home more than half (actually, DH ran it back to our BCV room after lunch one day). But so good. After our Italy trip, I thought I'd never get great pizza until we returned, but this was pretty darn great.

And I noticed you asking about Raglan Road on another TR. Since you're doing that for your birthday. It's really great, too. Skipped it last trip for some reason. But in 2007 we had had a crappy day after going to Discovery Cove and then Sea World, that I decided to spend the evening at DTD and we ended up at Raglan Road. It made the whole evening! Fun entertainment, great drinks and awesome food and dessert. I think the bread pudding is what they're known for for dessert, but there are some wonderful apps and entrees too. A very nice way to spend your birthday. Why did you decide against California Grill? I don't remember the reasoning except that it might possibly be closed?

 

[jenny105]

I love history, grew up visiting civil war museums and such, I would love to see Culloden in person. It was more than just one battle that ended a war, it was the beginning of a disgraceful genocide in Scotland. It's amazing that any of the Scottish culture has survived to this day considering what happened after this battle. (Can you tell how much I love history )

Love the pics of the castle ruins...can't wait to see more, more, more...

But, more importantly..... 10 Days til your Cruise!!
That deserves some serious dancing!!!

If you get out to Scotland, you should definitely visit Culloden. The tour guide we had was wonderful and really brought the battlefield to life. Since you're such a history buff, I'm sure you would absolutely love it.

9 days now! Single digits!

haven't been to Via Napoli but it is one I've been reading lots about- all very positive. I was toying with adding it myself, but can't seem to fit it in. I think you'll have a great meal there!

We love Italian food and the menu looks yummy! Kris is very excited to eat there.

Via Napoli is fantastic!!! We payed OOP for this meal in Sept 2010. We only ordered drinks and a large pizza, so it wasn't very much. Actually, we had a gift card. The margherita pizza is to die for and their aqua frescas are super yummy. I had the strawberry.

As far as buffets go, I'm about 99% sure that Crystal Palace is the least expensive one.

The margherita pizza is exactly what I want! I saw sangria on the menu too. That is a weakness.

Thanks!

That hut is awesome! Love it!

Great scotland updates - those beds are WAY too close together for strangers! WOW! The nighttime entertainment is so neat, looks like fun, minus the haggis WITH whiskey. Yuck to both! LOL.

Via Napoli is SO GOOD. If you're not absolutely ravenous, you could pay OOP for this meal and split a pizza- they are HUGE. I brought home more than half (actually, DH ran it back to our BCV room after lunch one day). But so good. After our Italy trip, I thought I'd never get great pizza until we returned, but this was pretty darn great.

And I noticed you asking about Raglan Road on another TR. Since you're doing that for your birthday. It's really great, too. Skipped it last trip for some reason. But in 2007 we had had a crappy day after going to Discovery Cove and then Sea World, that I decided to spend the evening at DTD and we ended up at Raglan Road. It made the whole evening! Fun entertainment, great drinks and awesome food and dessert. I think the bread pudding is what they're known for for dessert, but there are some wonderful apps and entrees too. A very nice way to spend your birthday. Why did you decide against California Grill? I don't remember the reasoning except that it might possibly be closed?

If I thought we were only going to get a pizza, I would pay OOP. But Kris said he's not going to eat all day just so he can stuff himself at Via Napoli.

Thanks for the feedback about Raglan Road. I love Irish pubs and I am really excited to go here. I knew about the dancers but I also read they have live bands on the weekend. I'm sure we're going to hang out here after dinner.

I was really feeling Cali Grill. I didn't want to use two service credits and Kris is more of a meat & potatoes kind of guy. He didn't seem overly excited about the menu so I looked elsewhere!

 

[jenny105]

Hello again! Only 9 days til the cruise. We are in single digit territory!

I think this week is my lucky week! I found out yesterday from Sunshine Rewards that I won a contest I entered. My prize is a Disney snow globe! I had a choice between Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and Princess Jasmine and I picked Sleeping Beauty. Then today I check my email and have one from Kristin who runs the Couponing to Disney site. Every month she has a 'Grow Your Fund' challenge, picks four winners, and gives them $25 to put in their Disney fund. Turns out I was one of the winners! I'm so excited! They say it comes in threes so maybe I'll play the lotto or hit up a casino tonight LOL.

Continuing the Scotland TR, when I left off we were leaving Culloden Battlefield and headed to Edinburgh. We had a couple of stops to make, the first being Pitlochry. What a cute town! They're best known for the heather gems store. Heather gems are jewelry made from roots of heather, which grow all over Scotland. I saw a lot of jewelry I liked but for a flower that grows purple, they didn't have any purple gems! The shop was our first stop. Kelli & I headed over there with Lynne and Sarah.

Employees crafting the gems. Kelli left her flash on and scared them!

We were on our own for lunch so we decided to walk through town & find something to eat. Pitlochry is such a pretty place!

Every picture I have of Scotland as ominous looking clouds looming overhead.

We decided to dine at Victoria's.

I forgot to take a picture inside but everything was green & dark wood. I had a steak & bleu cheese sandwich which was absolutely delicious. Kelli & Sarah made the mistake of getting cheeseburgers. Burgers are NOT the same as in America. I purposely stayed away from them because I wanted to try different kinds of cuisine and I'm glad I did. The meat was so dense and neither one of them enjoyed it.

After lunch, we shopped a little and then got back on the bus to head over the Blair Athol distillery where they make Bell's whisky. BTW, it's not called scotch there, just whisky. If you ask for scotch, they'll look at you like you have 3 heads. It's made from water and barley. Sounds delicious doesn't it?

It was very hard to hear with all the machinery around us so I can't even begin to explain the process and I didn't take many pictures. Just this one!

At the end of the tour, we got a free sample. Here is our guide handing them out.

Me and my whisky!

Sarah and I manned up & took it as a shot!

I don't think I'll be ordering scotch anytime soon.

After our tasting, we were able to browse the gift shop for a bit. I bought my mom & grandma whisky infused chocolate (which my mom loved!), my sister a little bottle of whisky, and myself a shot glass & souvenir bottle.

Biggest bottle of whisky I've ever seen

Back on the bus, we had a little quiz about what we've seen so far. We were all asked to write our answers down on a piece of paper and pass them to the front. Guess who won? Me! What was my prize? A bottle of whisky. And now I present to you the smallest bottle of whisky I've ever seen.

We weren't far from Edinburgh at that point. This is the bridge trains use to cross into the city.

Shortly after that, we arrived at our hotel, the Marriott Dalmahoy which was about 15-20 minutes outside of Edinburgh. The hotel was beautiful, albeit a little like a maze, but I wish we would've stayed inside the city. It would have been nice to be within walking distance when we had free time.

Our home for the next three nights:

Normal beds! Woohoo! Thank you, Marriott!

We had some time to freshen up before we were loaded back on the bus! Tonight we were touring and having dinner at the Holyrood Hotel.


As soon as we walked into the reception, there was a table with wine & champagne. BEFORE we toured the hotel. I walked around with our tour guide with a glass of champagne in my hand as did everyone else. We're so professional. Yeah, this was going to be an interesting night. We came back to the reception, had a few more glasses of champagne, and then were shown to the dining room. By that time everyone was feeling pretty good. I ended up making a new friend this night, Christina, who you will meet later! It was obvious our table was the "fun" table. This was evidenced by the fact that the bartenders kept bringing us drinks we didn't ask for.

For a hotel that raves about their food, they didn't serve very much of it! It was buffet style and everything was appetizer portion. I think this added to our tipsiness.

Cheers!

After dinner, it was back to our hotel. What a lively bus ride! Kelli is originally from New Jersey and we belted out 'Born to Run' on the bus, no shame. Lynne & Sarah invited us to hang out for a little while in their room & we quickly ordered a pizza because we were ravenous. There was a lot of laughing and bonding this night & it was one of the best of the trip!

Tomorrow we were off to tour the city of Edinburgh!

 

[tinkgurl]

Hi! I haven't been over to this PTR in quite awhile! How fun your trip is almost here!!

 

[klacey1]

Jenny, your Scotland posts are so educational! Definitely did not know most of what you've written about! The reception sounds like a lot of fun (although some more food would have been a nice gesture!)
Ahh, I remember reading about you booking your cruise last year and now it's practically here! CRAZY!
BTW-- hoping for a swift finish tonight!

 

[jenny105]

Hi! I haven't been over to this PTR in quite awhile! How fun your trip is almost here!!

It really snuck up on us. I can't believe how fast this year is going by. It's nearly half over already!

Jenny, your Scotland posts are so educational! Definitely did not know most of what you've written about! The reception sounds like a lot of fun (although some more food would have been a nice gesture!)
Ahh, I remember reading about you booking your cruise last year and now it's practically here! CRAZY!
BTW-- hoping for a swift finish tonight!

I try The reception was a blast. The hotel employees were so nice and it was a night when everyone got to know each other a little better. We definitely could've used more food! What they offered was tasty but it was all appetizer stuff, no real food!

I can't believe the cruise is next Friday. I booked it April of last year.

GET OUT THE BROOMS!

 

[Enchanted88]

Your Scotland pictures are so awesome! It looks like you had a great time!
I can't believe your cruise is so close!! It seems like last week you had like 6 months left! hahaha I'm excited to hear all about it! I'm still on the fence about going on a cruise! Ben really wants to, but I'm not so sure about it! So, I'll be looking forward to see what you have to say about it!

YAY for Via Napoli! I haven't eaten there yet, though--but we are going to in Novmeber! So, I can't give you any advice, but the pictures of the food look awesome! lol

I hope you have a great rest of the week!

 

[ash-n-brensmom]

Single Digit Dance!!!


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[jenny105]

Your Scotland pictures are so awesome! It looks like you had a great time!
I can't believe your cruise is so close!! It seems like last week you had like 6 months left! hahaha I'm excited to hear all about it! I'm still on the fence about going on a cruise! Ben really wants to, but I'm not so sure about it! So, I'll be looking forward to see what you have to say about it!

YAY for Via Napoli! I haven't eaten there yet, though--but we are going to in Novmeber! So, I can't give you any advice, but the pictures of the food look awesome! lol

I hope you have a great rest of the week!

Thanks!

Only 6 days to go! What if you guys took a 3 night cruise? It's less expensive than a longer one and would be like a tester. What's stopping you from going?

It seems like everyone I know on DIS has an ADR at Via Napoli so I guess that's a good thing!

You too.

Single Digit Dance!!!


​

I think this guy is my favorite.

 

[jenny105]

Hi everyone! So pixie dust was sprinkled on us this morning. I got a call from DCL and they upgraded us from an oceanview cabin on deck 2 to a verandah cabin on deck 7! We originally wanted to book a verandah but it was too much money for two nights so I'm excited we ended up with one anyway. I asked Kris if he wanted to know what they said or keep it a surprise & he told me surprise. Hmm, I hope he doesn't read this...

When I left off, we had arrived for our first night in Edinburgh. Breakfast was bright & early as usual and we boarded the bus for a tour of Edinburgh. The city is divided into two sections: the new town & old town. This was because the old town was absolutely fithly and disease ridden so the weathly decided to relocate to New Town. Edinburgh is absolutely what I picture when I think of European cities and a 100x prettier than Glasgow. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

We made a quick stop the Palace of Holyrood House. This is where the Queen stays when she visits Scotland. It's located at one end of the Royal Mile, in the Old Town. We didn't have a tour scheduled to go inside so we were limited to taking pictures through the gates.

Ugh. As I was typing this, Kris came in here and my co-worker ruined the whole upgrade surprise by opening her mouth. I'm too annoyed to finish now. I'll finish this later.

 

[khertz]

Pretty pictures. Boo at that co-worker for ruining both the surprise and this update!

 

[amandaluvsgoofy]

Oh no!!!! I'm so sorry!!! Did you stare daggers at her??

That's super awesome that y'all got the upgrade! Your cruise is going to be soooo awesome!

Can't wait to hear about Scotland!

 

[jenny105]

Pretty pictures. Boo at that co-worker for ruining both the surprise and this update!

Oh no!!!! I'm so sorry!!! Did you stare daggers at her??

That's super awesome that y'all got the upgrade! Your cruise is going to be soooo awesome!

Can't wait to hear about Scotland!

Ugh. I was just super irritated with her. I tried finishing the update and was like forget it, I'll do it later. She felt really bad though and ended up buying us a $15 credit to use on the ship. She didn't have to do that so that was super sweet of her.

I think I'll finish the update now LOL.

 

[jenny105]

Sorry for the shortened post! I was super annoyed my co-worker spoiled the surprise and just wasn't in the mood to update anymore. She did apologize and ended up buying us a $15 credit to use on the ship so that was really nice of her. Oh well! I bought Kris an onboard gift that will be waiting in the room when we board & he doesn't know about that so at least all is not ruined!

Back to Scotland. After we snapped a few pictures of the Palace of Holyroodhouse, we got back on the bus. Edinburgh is built at the base of a long dormant volcano and we got to drive to the top & take pictures of the view. Absolutely beautiful!

The weather may suck in Scotland but it's so green it almost makes up for it!

Edinburgh castle is off in the distance, dead center.

After the photo op, it was back on the bus and on to Edinburgh Castle. Rosie gave us a quick tour of the area & then we were pretty much on our own. I remember we went to see the Crown Jewels of Scotland and the World War memorial but unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures. Edinburgh Castle also serves as the backdrop for the Military Tattoo in August. I wish we had been there for that, it sounds awesome!

A picture of me in front of a castle that isn't Cinderella's!

The abbey within the castle walls

The Crown Jewels were in this building

This was the World War section

A little morbid but cute in a weird way.

At this point, it was just downpouring and everybody was feeling pretty miserable! Lunch was provided for us in one of the castle rooms, The Gatehouse Suite (no photography of course!). They served tea to warm us up which was nice but the food was lacking. It was finger sandwiches and pastries. There weren't even any tables, just chairs. Do people from the UK not eat a proper lunch? Afterward, we were left on our own for a few hours to shop and explore Edinburgh at our leisure.

More to come!

 

[ash-n-brensmom]

Yep, that's what I think of a European city complete with Castle! Awesome pics!!

Bummed about your surprise being ruined, but hey you can have a drink on her now! So excited for your cruise!! Can't wait to hear all about it!!

 

[jenny105]

Yep, that's what I think of a European city complete with Castle! Awesome pics!!

Bummed about your surprise being ruined, but hey you can have a drink on her now! So excited for your cruise!! Can't wait to hear all about it!!

Edinburgh is absolutely beautiful. I loved it there!

That's exactly why she bought us the credit. Her words were 'have a couple beers on me.'

 

[jenny105]

Only 3 days to go until the cruise! I'm probably going to put up a Scotland post everyday so I can get this wrapped up & start the DCL TR when I get back.

After lunch a few of us went on the little balcony that was connected to the Gatehouse Suite. Beautiful views of the city!

Thankfully it had stopped raining. We were able to venture off on hour own for a few hours before the group had to meet back up on the bus. Kelli, Lynne, Sarah, Christina, another agent Theresa, and I all headed out together. We were going to go shopping and get a real lunch!

On the way out of Edinburgh Castle, I snapped a few more pictures.

Sir Robert the Bruce. Doesn't that statue kind of look like Mel Gibson or is that just me?

Sir William Wallace

The Royal Mile is the oldest part of the city and connects Edinburgh Castle & the Palace of Holyroodhouse.

In New York people play the guitar, trumpet, or saxophone for money. In Edinburgh? Bagpipes.

He had a sign that said 'take a picture, pay a pound' so I paid up!

This was the one picture I really wanted. A real UK phone booth, not the one at Epcot!

Right after I took that picture, a guy stumbled out of a nearby bar and threw up next to the phone booth. Yuck.

We stopped in a couple shops for souvenirs and then made our way toward the Hard Rock. I know, I know. Jen, you're in Scotland and you're going to the Hard Rock? Wasn't my idea! Lynne collects merchandise from each Hard Rock location so we figured since we were stopping there for a shirt, we might as well eat. Cutting through the city provided even more beautiful photo opportunites!

After stuffing my face with a huge plate of nachos, we made our way back to the Royal Mile. Sarah was on a mission to find a particular kind of whiskey and Christina was on the hunt for a Christmas ornament. Pretty soon it was time to return to the bus.

How much is that doggie in the window?

Anyone want to buy a kilt?

Tonight Visit Scotland was throwing a reception for us and other travel agents that would be attending their expo the following day. I didn't take pictures of the hall they held it in but it was beautiful, big surprise. The reception was kind of lame. Barely any food (that was becoming a trend!) and no one really felt like mingling. Sarah, Christina, and I stayed for one drink (a whiskey and cranberry that was quite good!) and ventured to the bar downstairs. We stayed for one more drink and decided to head out toward the Grass Market area of Edinburgh, which is a street full of pubs. The rest of the night was spent in the Black Bull watching a live band called Bleeker. Husband & wife band and the woman was a fantastic singer! No pictures of the pub itself but here is a shot of me, Sarah, and Christina.

We took a cab back to the hotel. The cabs in the UK are super cute. They look like PT Cruisers. I wish I had thought to take a picture!

That brings our night to a close. Coming up - our last day in Scotland.

 

[ash-n-brensmom]

so beautiful...DH and I are sitting here drooling over those Edinburgh pics! Someday....

 

[jenny105]

so beautiful...DH and I are sitting here drooling over those Edinburgh pics! Someday....

I hope you get to go someday. It really is such a beautiful city and just has this majestic feel to it. I'm so used to New York City and while I love it, it doesn't have that same feeling.

 

[debrapagliasotti]

Great pics!! Seeing all those pics is really making me want to go back to Europe.

How exciting about your DCL upgrade! Boo on your co-worker, but it was nice of her to do that ship credit for you. I hope you have a great time and cant wait to see pics when you get back.