Day 6 - PamNC & Uncle Albert

[PamNC]

DAY 6 – Downtown Disney, Stormalong Bay & Epcot Evening Hours

Cast of Characters: Me and my DH, Uncle Albert
Resort: Beach Club

On this fine Disney morning, we woke up and started thinking about a breakfast destination. If you have been following our trip, you know we have deemed buffets out of the question. That rules out several close by breakfast places like Cape May, Garden Grove (Swan), and Fresh (Dolphin). We had tried Yacht Club Galley. So, I had a brainstorm. A friend had told me about a wonderful banana stuffed French toast dish she had enjoyed @ Boatwrights, over at Dixie Landings. Sorry, I’m from the south and I choose to still call it Dixie Landings. We decided to try it out and then take the boat launch over the DTD for some shopping. We drove to Dixie Landings, parked, and were seated immediately at Boatwrights. This wasn’t our first time. We tried it for dinner about 5 years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. My DH still brings up the fried chicken. This was not a wasted trip!! I absolutely loved the banana stuffed French toast, reminding me of tonga toast except the bread isn’t sourdough, it’s Texas Toast and it comes with a yummy strawberry/banana sauce. Very very good. My DH got an even better dish. Sweet Potato Pancakes. I have to capitalize every word of it because it deserves to be capitalized. We ordered grits on the side, instead of meat. We were in the south after all. Uncle Albert was reluctant about trying Boatwrights, but he was quite glad that we did. After breakfast, we strolled through the gift shop which reminded me a bit of Cracker Barrel’s store. Had a country twist to it. We then checked out the grounds, took some pictures and compared the rustic Alligator Bayou section and the Mansions. I think I would prefer to stay in the Mansions.

It was around 10:00 so we decided to take the boat launch, as planned, to DTD for some shopping. Guess what? The boat doesn’t start that journey until 11:00. So, we opted to just drive over. It was already getting hot. We parked near West Side only to find that the shops weren’t open until 11:00, but luckily the shops @ the Marketplace were open for business. We had some shopping to do. We always start with the huge World of Disney store. I bought a poster t-shirt with Mickey plastered all over it, and we bought a wedding gift for some friends who had essentially eloped to Germany to get married. They have been living together for years. We picked out a cute pair of Mickey & Minnie pepper and salt shakers for them. Uncle Albert bought a beautiful Mickey Mouse watch. After the World of Disney, we strolled over to the Ghiradelli shop and to our luck and surprise they were giving out samples of chocolate…whole squares! Yummy. We are both chocoholics. After scarfing down the sample and sniffing and salivating over all the goodies in the shop, Uncle Albert informed me that he needed to sit down somewhere and put on his new watch. We found some covered tables, I mean covered from the sun, right outside the soda shop. I was glad to sit down and take a break. We chatted a bit and watched people go by. Then, Uncle Albert looked at me real serious like and said, “I’m going back in there (meaning the chocolate shop) and I’ll walk up to the lady with the basket of samples and I’ll say HELLO, what do you have there?” His goal being to get another sample. This may not seem funny to you, but if you could have seen his wheels turning and the look on his face when he said this to me. The man was on a mission. A chocolate mission. When he said it he smiled kind of crooked-like. We sat there for quite a while coming up with different ways to get more free samples. Like we could say “What do you have there? Do you sell these here?” It was a good laugh. But, we didn’t actually do it. Too many more stores to explore. We hit the store, Tails, where they sell pet gifts and such. We didn’t buy anything but it was fun to look and I took Uncle Albert’s picture with a large dalmation statue in the store. We went to the Christmas store and bought my mother some ornaments. We hit the team Mickey store which shares space with Guest Services, where we bought out AP’s upon our arrival. We saw the same CM who had helped us. It seemed like just a day ago, but we had been @ Disney now for 6 days including our arrival day. Yuk. I was starting to get the blues, the kind of blues that you get when you realize you only have 2 1/2 days left before you go home. Oh well – I know a cure for the blues….chocolate. So back to Ghiradelli we went, not for free samples but for a chocolate malt. We shared it and then decided we had done enough damage with the shopping so it was time for a swim in Stormalong Bay. It was a long, hot walk back to the West Side parking lot…good grief. We couldn’t wait to get in the pool.

And so we did, we spent the afternoon splashing and playing in the pool. Once again, like two little kids. It was quite crowded. I suppose because it was the afternoon. But, we did manage to find two chairs. After our pool time, we headed back to the room to take showers. We had PS ressies @ Palo at 6:00. We were hungry because really all we had for lunch was one chocolate malt between us. We got there @ 5:30 and we were seated immediately. The restaurant had just opened so it was quite empty. This was our first time @ Palo. We loved the food, but the atmosphere is lacking something. Not sure what, it’s hard to describe. We both got an individual wood-fired pizza. Mine was loaded with cheese and basil, I can’t remember the name. DH got a vegetable pizza with goat cheese. They were delicious. We shared a chocolate torte-like dessert which was also delicious. On a scale of 1-10, I would give the food a 9 and the service a 9. Atmosphere – lacking a bit but nothing that would cause me to never go back. It was pretty darn good.

It was Epcot extra magic hours so that was our plan for the evening…Epcot. Upon entering, we heard the British Invasion performing so we rushed over and heard the last 2 or 3 songs. Lots of fun! People were dancing and singing. We walked back the long way, towards France. My DH had been thinking about this cologne he had seen earlier in the trip in the shop in Italy. I don’t know why I said it, I’m not a cheap person but I said to him, “Everything you buy is so expensive. My shirt was only $17.50 and you’ve already bought a $65 watch.” He didn’t get mad, but he teased me about this comment for the rest of the trip. He said, “Okay, Ms. I drive a Saab.” I bought my Saab used, I don’t know what he is talking about. We strolled through the countries, looking in the shops. Somehow we managed not to buy anything. Not even cologne. We entered Future World and headed for the Living Seas. We just had to see Turtle Talk again. The show is a little different each time, although Crush says and does a lot of the same things. I think it depends on how talkative, or non-talkative, the kids are. He really should talk to an adult once in awhile. Us old folks like Crush too, c’mon now! We rode Spaceship Earth again, I think this made time #3. We headed for Ellen’s Energy Adventure, but it was closed already. By this time it was getting close to time for Illuminations. We decided to try to get a spot at the beginning of World Showcase, where the characters usually sign autographs. It’s a closed off area that they sometimes open, depending on the weather and which way the wind is blowing. You have to wait it out and it’s a chance because they decide about 15 minutes prior whether or not to open it up. You have to sit down while you watch. It’s an excellent location. We had stumbled upon it back in November. While we were waiting, we somehow got mixed up in a huge crowd of those Brazilian teenagers. They were actually very well behaved, no singing or clapping until a CM decided to get them all riled up. He was cheering them on and it was a loud mess. Then, when it was time to let us into the special viewing place, the CM's wanted to go through the rules like “don’t run and you have to sit down through the entire show.” Well, the Brazilians were still chanting and clapping and the CM's seemed irritated about it. If you ask me, they asked for it because they started it. After living through that, we were thankfully allowed into the special area. And it was just as spectacular as I remembered it. The fireworks appear to be right on top of you. Very nice!

After Illuminations, we headed back to Future World. We had our special wristbands on after all. Our hope and plan was to hit Soarin’ again. Guess what? 75 minute wait. No fastpasses left. You know what we did? We simply grabbed a soda and sat there in the Land Pavillion and watched the people file in and out of Soarin. We left the Land and rode Journey Into Your Imagination. Which we don’t like, but we sometimes ride it anyway. Not sure why. At this point, we were tired and although the park was open until midnight, we decided to head back in. On the way, as we walked around the World Showcase Lagoon, the same lady’s voice who announced Illuminations came out of nowhere and announced that in honor of Extra Magic Hours they were going to have a special salute that would go off in the middle of the lagoon. She said that it was deliberate and not to be frightened. All of a sudden, BOOM! There was a huge explosion from one of the barges from Illuminations and a big flame. We concluded that it wasn’t really a special salute, but perhaps something they had to do to release the gas. The night before, at about the same time, we had heard an explosion and couldn’t figure out what it was. Well, now we knew.

We walked back to our room, tired and wore out once again. Fell fast asleep!! So far, we had encountered little to no rain but Dennis was on the way so we were thinking things would change. Thank goodness it wasn’t headed for Orlando.

Once again, we dreamed Disney dreams in anticipation of another perfect day.

Stay tuned for Day 7 which, by the way, may be the best day that Uncle Albert and I have ever had on a Disney trip.

PamNC

 

[meeko_33785]

Sounds like another great day. Thanks for sharing it with us.

 

[Minniespal]

Enjoyed reading your report ~ Thanx for posting.