OK, where were we? Sorry about the delay, hopefully these will come more quickly now. Thank you for your patience.
This was to be the day we first hit the parks. Mickey woke me up at 6:00. The girls were prodded and I got a few grunts out of them. The rule when they went to bed last night was if they are not up, I am doing something else. At 7:00 they were prodded again and after little response, I told them to get into my bed because it was more comfortable.
Went to the Marketplace for a refill on my tea and found a quiet spot in the solarium to read. When the pool opened up, I changed into my trunks and moved over there. More reading and relaxing with an occasional dip in the pool. At about 11:00 I went back to the room. The kids were still knocked out.
Sleeping Beauty and Princess and the Pea?
Prodded them again and BF, groaned and said, “When are we going to the parks?” I laughed and said tomorrow. That got them up. “What?” “Its after 11:00. There is no way I am going to the parks now.” “But…but…but.” Seems there was some miscommunication and they thought it was OK to keep on sleeping. Yea, right.
I told them I was going to have lunch at Beaches and Cream and they were welcome to join me. BUT. You need to be there when it opens at noon. Fat chance on that one. I went back to my chair and a little after noon I stroll up to the host stand. It was a 45 minute wait already. When asked how many, I said one to three depending on if the girls get here. He told me if it was just one, and I did not mind sitting at the counter, then he could seat me right away. What to do? I could either wait for the kids or go in now. I did what every self respecting father would do and said, sure.
He escorted me in. I took a seat next to the walk up counter. Where I sat. And sat. And sat. Finally, a waitress comes over and takes my order. Patience was called for because they just opened and everyone was pretty busy. What to have? Of course there was no other choice than a cheeseburger. For years I heard people rave about their burgers and it was time to see for myself. For the drink, I pointed to my refillable mug and she informs me that they can only get refilled at the walk up. Huh? But since I was sitting right next to the counter, she would give me a coke. Didn’t make sense but OK.
Here is another point where some pictures were deleted. Too bad because I got some action shots of the grill area. They had three people crammed in this small area but things were choreographed well. I also watched the guy at the take out. It was not overly busy but he was pretty quick. Even more impressive since he was “earning his ears.”
One pick that was saved
About 15 minutes later Julie, who was the chef on the grill, comes over with my burger. “It was ready so I thought I would bring it over. Let me get you some silverware and napkins. Would you like some red onions to go with that?” What a nice gesture. You know she was slammed at the grill but instead of either leaving my plate there or run over, throw it down and run away, she made sure I was taken care of.
Now for the moment of truth. This was on my Disney to do list for a long while. You are probably expecting me to do the cheap writing trick and say I took a bite and spit it out because it was so bad. Nope, I can’t do that to Julie. Took the first bite and it met my already high expectations. It was well seasoned and cooked perfectly. Steaks I order medium rare but burgers I want well done. Sometimes they come out charcoal but not this one. Not the absolute best burger I ever had but by far the best one at Disney. The bill was under $9.00 less discount plus tip. What a deal.
Back at the pool the princesses arrived. DD, “I could not decide what bathing suit to wear.” DDBF, “Yea, it was her fault.” Way to run your friend under the bus BF. It was OK because she was sucking up to me. Smart kid.
After a while I left them at the pool to take a trip to Walgreens. Tired of dealing with changing the rechargeable batteries every 5 minutes. I also wanted to get some cheese and fruit for munchies before dinner at the Wave. Near the Walgreens across the street (the road that goes in front of Crossroads) there was this place that marketed itself as a “Garden Marketplace” so instead of going further to Publix, I went in there. Don’t worry about the name of this place because it will not be open much longer. The shelves were bare and it had a seen better days look. Picked up a couple pieces of fruit and Crackerbarrel Cheddar. No Brie could be found for the kids. After only 30 minutes, I was handing my keys back to the valet. Not bad.
While dumping the groceries at the room I ran into the kids on the way back to the pool. DDBF was not going back into the water so DD and I went in. It was right when they started the fun and games. The highlight was a hula hoop contest. There were some kids that were really good and after an eternity they declared a 6 way tie. It was getting close to 4:00 so we headed back to the room to get ready for dinner. Missed the changing of the lifeguards.
Much primping ensued. DD had a headache and I could not find my razor so a quick trip to the Marketplace. Why didn’t we find this out before I went to Walgreens? I showered and was dressed and while waiting for them I had a cocktail, turned on the TV and had some cheese appetizers. After a not totally unbearable time we were waiting for the MK bus.
At the MK, we looked for the elephant topiary near where the busses pull in. On her first visit to WDW in 1995 (she was about 17 months), she spent some time lounging there (I think the bus stop configuration was different then). For old time’s sake, we went down the walkway to take these pictures. She was a little bummed the trunk was lacking in foliage.
On her second visit, we were on the bus and she was talking about seeing the elephant. “Yes, dear, we will ride Dumbo.” “Not Dumbo, the elephant.” After going back and forth that “Dumbo was the elephant” “NO not THE ELEPHANT,” we finally figured out what she was talking about when she told us “See, the elephant” as we pulled into the bus drop off area. Who says kids can’t remember things from their early trips. I am sure somewhere there is a picture of her with THE ELEPHANT. Need to find it sometime.
A quick monorail over to the Contemporary. We were early for dinner but checked in anyway to see if they could get us in. After getting our pager we went to the bar. I had a martini (not as good as the Tambu Lounge) and they had sodas. We looked at the menu and it did not seem vegetarian friendly.
Not a good picture of the menu on the wall at the entrance
A dark picture of one of the lounge areas
The bar
I went to the waitress and asked about other vegetarian items. She informed me that they can make most dishes vegetarian and to let the waiter know when we get to the table and the chef will come out to talk to you.
Back at the bar, the pager went off and we were shown to our table. Our waiter eventually appears (he was not overly efficient). We explained the vegetarian issue and he says he will talk to the chef.
The restaurant layout and décor was kind of cool
The waiter comes back after talking to the chef, (what no chef coming to talk to us) and he gives the kids some options. They decide. DD goes with the seasonal vegetarian soup with tofu, DDBF has the linguini vegetarian style and I order the chicken pot pie.
The princesses
The three of us. Note: I am not photogenic and look much better in person than on film. Disregard the expression on my face. I was having a good time. Really, I was.
The three of us had a nice conversation until our entrees were delivered. It took a while so we had to make some diversions.
Like burning your hand
Ouch
Actually they were these really cool electrical light candles. No hands or fingers were harmed in the making of these photographs
BF’s linguini (still no nickname). The thing on top was toasted bread that they really liked
DD’s soup. The tofu looks delicious. Not. She tried to get me to taste it and there was no way. I have a glass stomach and just the thought of it made me gag. She once talked me into tasting her veg “chicken nuggets” and it was so gross that I had to spit it out.
My chicken pot pie
Ok, the food. The linguine was a big hit, the soup not so much. My chicken pot pie was out of this world tasty. Sorry about the darkness of the picture but the thing on top was a very light and dry pastry. I tried eating it on the side and there was not much taste to it. If you soaked it in the “stew like” dish it just sucked up the juices. Still, I preferred using the bread which was also very good. My dish was flavorful and the chicken was boneless which concerned me when they first brought it out.
I wasn’t all that hungry but could have finished it all and felt stuffed or decide to take it with us. It got to the point to finish it or it would not be worth taking the rest for lunch. Decided to take the rest home. The girls wanted room for desert so the linguini was also boxed up but the rest of the soup was abandoned.
DD and I had desert and cocktails at the Wave bar on our last trip and she was looking forward to experiencing desert again. Back then, even though they were broken down into three flights, you could choose any three of the nine samples. Now they have cracked down and you had to order one of the three choices.
They chose the Creamy Indulgence - Cheesecake with Raspberry Coulis, Coconut Panna Cotta with Passion Fruit Drizzle, and Chocolate-Passion Fruit Mousse with Pecan-Olive Brittle
Decadent Flavors - Blueberry Compote with Yogurt Gelato, Lemon Cornbread with Vanilla Panna Cotta, or Chocolate Mousse with Salted Caramel Sauce. Sorry, these got ripped into before the picture was taken.
Neither were well received as you can see what they looked like 30 seconds later
The favorites were the Coconut Panna Cotta, Chocolate-Passion Fruit Mousse and the Chocolate Mousse with Salted Caramel Sauce.
Total cost minus discount plus tip was $84.84. Not bad. This was a really good meal. The place was interesting and the food for two of us was very good. DD did not like the soup. The only downside was the service was spotty. We had to wait for refills and it irritated me that I had to wait for him to bring out the check. Definitely would consider the Wave again. A fun time was had by all.
Running out of picture space so will close this episode. Overall we had fun. So we did not go to the parks as planned. People who think Disney is all about the riding rides are the ones that are Crazy Nuts. We had fun at the pool, the burger at B&C was very good and our evening at the Wave exceeded expectations.
Up next: Day 3 part 2. Or the detour on the way home. Well, home away from home.
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. Someday. In the mean time, nice mini trip and lovin your pics! Now bring us back to the World please
You are a brave man.
