DREAMing of Our Surf and Turf Adventure ~8/30/11 Updates!~

[JessicaKnits]

So, January 20th is not technically a "Disney" day. But it does officially start our vacation! This will be the Friday before we fly out. Adam will probably working a full day, which means he will get home about 4-4:30.

It works out perfect for us, I get to have really an entire day to tidy up the house, do all of those "leaving town" errands like leaving the key with our neighbor, leaving another key with Adam's middle sister so she can bring in the mail and take out the recycling, etc.

I am also in charge of packing, because Adam sometimes wears, um, how shall we say it? Questionable attire? I think that works best. A prime example of it would be his "Milwaukee Brewer Klements Racing Sausages T-Shirt". Sometimes those things slip in anyway (See future posts about our trip last summer!) He also has no concept of "Ok, 3 fancy dinners = 3 fancy shirts" either. So its nice that he is out of my hair so that I can pack and organize, and get everything loaded into the car before he even gets home.

Since our flights are still up in the air as well, its sort of leaving our January 20th plans up in the air with them. We have several options pending at the moment. Last time we flew Southwest. We almost always fly out of Milwaukee Mitchell Airport. But, thats about an hour and 45 minute drive for us. However, Adam's sister lives just outside of Milwaukee very near the airport, so she is always kind enough to let us stay with her.

So, we could fly Southwest, but then we have to go to Milwaukee. But, we don't have any bag fees. Believe me when I say, this little lady does not travel lightly. Neither does Adam for that matter! However, Southwest does not have their flight times released yet, and their rates for December and their flight times were not ideal.

Or, we could fly Airtrain. We still have to go to Milwaukee. We will have to pay bag fees. Their flight times were better, but their cost, just as high as Southwest's was. And they also don't have their flight schedule out for our dates.

Third option? Delta. Ridiculous bag fees. But, we can fly right out of our home airport, in Appleton. It is exactly 1.69 miles from our house. We could WALK to the airport if it wasn't in January! The rate right now is only $284, which was very comparable to what Southwest and Airtran were for December. The problem? The flight times for arriving into Orlando and departing are AWESOME. However, its a 6 hour layover in Atlanta on the way out, and 5 hours on the way back. It won't be too bad though, I will be more comfortable that if in fact it snows by us, I won't have to sweat about making a connection. Which brings me to my last point:

IT
WILL
NOT
SNOW!

Did you hear that mother nature? You dumped record amounts of snow on us, I missed 2 days of work (as did everyone else) because I couldn't get out of the driveway this past winter! You also snowed on us the end of APRIL! YOU OWE ME THIS!

Wow. Now that I got that out, I feel much better. But seriously, I mean it! This is the main reason why we are doing the Cruise at the End. At least this way if mother nature snows us out (Which she won't!) we don't miss the boat, literally.

So long story short, we will wait until Airtran/Southwest release their schedule and decide from there!

If we go with an Airtran/Southwest option, then we will end up spending the night in Milwaukee.

Otherwise, a nice quiet night at home!

 

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

I'm waiting in anticipation of flight schedules too! Hopefully everything is released soon, and I can stop obsessively checking websites . That's too bad Southwest doesn't fly out of your local airport - how convenient would that be to walk to your flight!?!

 

[shelbys mommy]

I'm in! I love the way you have everything planned out! Can't wait to read more!

 

[JessicaKnits]

I'm waiting in anticipation of flight schedules too! Hopefully everything is released soon, and I can stop obsessively checking websites . That's too bad Southwest doesn't fly out of your local airport - how convenient would that be to walk to your flight!?!

Answer: Pretty awesome! We will see what AirTran has to offer as flight times. They usually offer a non stop out of Milwaukee that gets into Orlando at 11:40ish. Otherwise, this Delta flight from our home airport sounds really attractive!

I'm in! I love the way you have everything planned out! Can't wait to read more!

Hi! Welcome! I never have met a well thought out plan I was not madly in love with! Thanks for reading!

 

[JessicaKnits]

Just like our plans for this trip, our 2010 trip started with a trip to Milwaukee. We ended leaving right in the middle of one of the worst storms we had in recent memory. It was raining so hard that you could hardly have a conversation in the house. When there was a small break in the storm, we took the opportunity to leave. We hardly got 20 miles from home when it was again pouring, with extremely high winds, and plenty of hail. Thankfully it was very small hail and didn’t damage the car, but was super scary none the less. When we got home, we had over $9,000 in hail damage to our house! Since it was so long after the storm, at least we didn’t have to wait long for an insurance adjuster to come out!

Despite the weather, we actually did make it down to Milwaukee in decent time, despite it being a Friday afternoon. Once we got there we dropped off our bags at the house, and headed off for dinner. We came home and talked for a little bit. Adam’s sister’s new husband (fiancé at the time) has been to Disney a few times and is a HUGE fan. I predict a trip with them in the future. After a few glasses of wine for us ladies, it was off to bed as it was already passed midnight.

We woke up about 7 AM, and were prepared to leave for the airport by 9 AM. When I was getting ready, I forgot that you have to guard the sink with your life around my soon to be niece.

Meet Medusa, who loves fresh tap water, and who does not follow the “No Cats on Counters” or “Personal Boundaries” rules. She helped herself to what must have been a cat’s equivalent of a gallon of water, and off she went for more beauty sleep. Before we knew it, it was time to head off to the airport! All the planning, and the research, it was all about to pay off!

We stopped along the way at a McDonald’s for breakfast. I never eat McDonalds in my normal day to day life, so it was a nice “treat” to start off vacation. It was a short 10 minute ride to the airport. We were flying on Southwest, and even though I checked in at 23 hours and 50 minutes, we still got boarding group B. Oh well.

Our security experience was…odd. I went through without a problem, but Adam got stopped by security because they thought he had a razor blade in his wallet. It was not in fact a razor blade, but a security device that was sewn into his wallet. This wallet has gone through airport security approximately 12,694 times. Ok, not that many times, but enough that if there were in fact a razor blade, or something that resembled a razor blade, it should have been noticed before today. After about 20 minutes (literally!) the TSA officer, unable to locate the non-existent razor blade in the wallet, accepted our explanation that it really was just a security device sewn into the wallet. So note to yourself, if ever thinking of designing wallets, either have external security devices, or don’t shape them like something that could resemble a razor blade. But, they were just doing their jobs, and in the end, I appreciated that they investigated a potentially dangerous situation. They did make Adam go through the “full pat down” which he was not amused by. Hey honey, it’s the price some of us (haha, you in this case!) have to pay to ensure our safety.

We made it through security, stopped off at the newsstand for some tabloid gossip for me, and found a place to wait for our flight. I excused myself to the restroom, and only was gone a moment or two, and when I came back, they were started to line up the boarding groups. Yay!

Now, I love Southwest, and I LOVE the fact that they now assign boarding groups. The first time I flew them was in the pre-boarding group days. YIKES! I do really wish that instead of doing boarding groups, they would set it up so that when you check in, you pick your seat, and there are no changes after that. It really would eliminate that whole “cattle corral” feeling.

While we were gathering in our corral, I was then approached by TSA along with a few other individuals wearing caps, asked to remove my hat and it was again inspected. I also was carrying a very large purse (think capable of holding a small toddler) and that was also re-inspected! Milwaukee Mitchell could possibly be the safest airport in the country!

We finally did make it on the plane and found a middle and window seat about 10 rows back. I have to say, of all the flights I have been on, I was really impressed with how quickly everyone loaded and how considerate they were with the overhead bin space. No one had to gate check and there was not any noticeable bag rearranging that had to take place. Awesome! We were able to take off 10 minutes early! I was very nervous about making our dinner reservation this night because I was unsure how long the ME would take, so this put a smile on my face!

Here’s a quick picture of us, about to depart!

We had a relatively uneventful flight, and even managed to pick up another 15 minutes in the air! Awesome! Before I knew it (and thankfully before my ipod ran out of charge) we were landing in Orlando. Holy wow it is hot here!! It had been in the 90s at home before we left (very unusual for us) but it still didn’t prepare us for the humidity. We quickly made it off the plane and towards the Magical Express, it was very easy to find! We were checked in without delay, and got there just in time, a HUGE group got there right after us. It was the start of the Free Dining promotion, so the lines for the Values got incredibly long, thankfully we were only about 10 back from the end of the Pop line. We had barely made it to the end when the CM called out for 2 more, that was us! We were put on a bus bound for Caribbean Beach, with a few Pop guests on as well.

We were dropped off first, and since we had done online check in, had no wait at all! They had our folio already printed, and met all of the room requests I made by fax the week before (renovated room, highest floor possible, King Bed). Things were going well for us! We quickly went up to room to check things out there and then went down to for dinner.
We were staying in the 90’s building, directly across from the laptop pool, in the building with the laptop on it. We cut across the parking lot to the bus stop and boarded a bus to Downtown Disney.

A few pics from Downtown Disney:

We were about 20 minutes early for our ADR at Raglan Road and were given a pager. We waited about 10 minutes before we were ready to be seated.
Our server was Chris. Other than a few, very minor, timing issues with the meal, he was outstanding as a server. This was our first meal, and he was really excellent at explaining how the menu there worked and what we could, and could not have, on the Deluxe plan.

Now, on to the good stuff. For drinks I had a pomegranate lemonade, and Adam had a Diet Coke. (Apparently I really enjoyed that lemonade!)

I had a really hard time deciding on my appetizer, but finally decided on the Kinky Crab, and yes, that is really the name of it.

Kilmore Quay crab spring rolls served with a sweet chili jam $9

These are very much like egg rolls, and were filled with amazing fresh crab. Being from Wisconsin, you rarely ever see real crab on a menu because its really not very easy to get, and most people won't pay the price to have it brought in, so this was really a treat. They rolls came out hot and were absolutely delicious. The dipping sauce was a tomato based sweet chili sauce, and went perfectly with the sweet crab. What I really appreciated about this dish was that this was all crab on the inside, no filler like you would find in a crab cake. It was really lovely!

Adam got the heritage tomato salad.

Heirloom tomato and rocket salad, with shallots, parmesan crisps and balsamic reduction $9

Now, while I absolutely can't stand tomatoes, Adam would actually probably trade me in for a tomato, if they were in short supply. He enjoyed the tomatoes, but did not care for the dressing, which was very bitter.

For my entree, I went with the "It's not Bleedin Chowder".

It is potatoes, mussels, prawns, scallops and fresh seafood infused with white wine and finished with cream $24. This as well, was really excellent. It also had some succulent gulf shrimp in it. No problems at all there. And the best part, by far, was the white wine sauce. If it would have been socially acceptable, I would have licked the bowl. Really wonderful, and like nothing I've ever really had before.


Adam went, not surprisingly, with the Mighty Mixed Grill:

Lamb cutlet, Guinness banger, sirloin steak, black pudding, chicken drumstick and bacon $28 (From AllEars). Everything got a substantial thumbs up, with the exception of the black pudding. For those of you who have tried it before, you know it is definitely an acquired taste, one of which Adam has yet to acquire. The potatoes that were piped along with the dish were also really delicious.

Somehow, I missed pictures at dessert time, because all that comes up on the camera is this:

but I had Ger's Bread and Butter Pudding, and Adam had the Strawberry Apple Crisp. Both were good, but neither were anything to write home about. I enjoyed the Pudding because it was not a "sweet" dessert, but the portion of it was huge. I only got about halfway through it, and Chris said that most people don't even get that far.

So, while we were secluded inside of Raglan Road (Off topic, but it is really beautiful in there!) we didn’t notice that it had started to down pour outside. I mean, REALLY rain. Before I left, I had “ponchos” on our “To Buy” list, but I forgot. I remembered on our drive to Milwaukee, and we had a conversation about how if we remembered to bring them it would probably be sunshine every day, and if we forgot it would pour. Needless to say, we forgot to make another stop before getting on the plane. So, we made a mad dash for the nearest store, and shelled out a whopping $30 bucks for 2 ponchos. $30!!! I know we are in Disney, but really? I was really kicking myself for forgetting, because 2 ponchos at home would have been $10. Needless to say, it was still $30 well spent, because these were used liberally throughout the week. We had planned on going to Jellyrolls after dinner, but I was so soaked by the time we bought our ponchos that they were really pointless, and to make matters worse, the bus driver had the air conditioning on full blast, which made for a very chilly ride back to Pop. By the time we got back I was in a “mood” and didn’t feel like going to Jellyrolls. Here’s a charming picture of me in my poncho:

We had been gone a few hours when we got back, and our luggage hadn’t arrived. HUGE bummer when we were soaking wet. We decided to call down to the front desk to check on that since we had also ordered groceries from Garden Grocer. They lady we were transferred to was extremely helpful (as was everyone we encountered at Pop!) and explained that since there was lightning before (we had no idea!) that they had suspended baggage delivery. She explained that they would be resuming shortly; I explained that we got caught in the rain at Downtown Disney and were soaking wet, she said they would drop our bags off first.

It wasn’t 5 minutes later and our bags and our groceries came up as well. I can’t say enough nice things about Garden Grocer! We ordered just a few snack items from them (chips, lots of bottled water, my chai tea, and a Styrofoam cooler from them). I am a liquor/wine drinker, and so packed mini airliners of liquor and mini wine bottles in my checked luggage. Adam is a beer drinker, so we had Garden Grocer also do a beer run for him.

I don’t know why he doesn’t just drink water, but he likes his Busch Light. He was pretty sad that unlike at home, Busch only comes in a 24-pack here, and not in a 30-pack. And FYI, a case of Busch and 2 12-packs of Corona in bottles was less expensive than buying a 12 pack of bottles at the resort! Rather than paying for drinks at dinner, we would just come back to the room, I would have a few glasses of wine, he would have a few beers.
By this point we were both pretty tired and we had a really early morning tomorrow, so it was off to bed!!

Up Next: Movie Night #3 – The Little Mermaid

 

[JessicaKnits]

This is one of the first Disney movies that I remember watching (The very first is Bambi in case you were curious). So, it goes without saying that we would have to have a movie theme night in honor of Ariel and all of her mer-friends. Plus, it was a really icky and rainy night, so it was nice to have a movie night in. Again, I used the movie theme night thread for inspiration.

So, I now present our meal!

Homemade Mac & Cheese (The Sea SHELL variety). We also had Ursula Octo-dogs. Somewhat of a grown up twist on a childhood favorite!

For dessert we had a blonde version of worms and dirt. Using vanilla pudding and golden oreos, and Swedish fish instead of worms.

Those are nilla wafers crushed on top. They were supposed to go on the bottom as "sand" but I forgot them!

 

[JessicaKnits]

So January 21st is our “Fly Out” Day! We will book the flight that gets us into Orlando the earliest. We flew Southwest last time, but will probably be flying on Airtran this time around, just because they offer much better flight times (at least for our schedules). I’m hoping to land in Orlando around 12 noon. We also took the Magical Express last time, but this time around I am considering booking a town car. We will still want groceries in our room, and since Garden Grocer requires a $50 minimum order in addition to delivery fees and we can get a towncar that includes a grocery stop for only $55, it seems like a better choice, plus, no lines!

Once we stop for our groceries, its off to our hotel!! We plan to drop our stuff off in the room and then take the bus over to Downtown Disney. We will probably be famished, so our first stop?

Mmmmmm! I love sandwiches! Earl sadly did not fit into our plans last time, but he is a top priority for me on this trip. We may split a sandwich here because we do have a big dinner planned.

Then I want to stop at Mickey’s Pantry. I didn’t get one of those pancake/egg shaper spatula things last time, and I have regretted it ever since. Perhaps we will also hit up Babycakes for a snack.

Then its going to be back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. Our first meal of the trip is (drumroll please!)….

(Photo Courtesy of wdwinfo.com)

This is a new restaurant for us, and quite frankly I’m surprised that we didn’t stop here last trip as we both love seafood. The main reason I picked this for our first dinner is because we really want to try out Jellyrolls and this way if it pours like last time, we are only a short walk away.

After what will certainly be a great time, it will be back to the hotel for bed!

Up Next: Day One of 2010 Trip

 

[JessicaKnits]

So, Day 1 started much too early for us. Being inexperienced, and having an 8:05 AM Breakfast ADR were a bad combo for me. Out to the bus stop we went at 6:45 AM. By 7:00 AM we were on a bus headed to the mornings destination. It was a whopping 15ish minute drive, which definitely lead to a lot of sitting and waiting. And more sitting and waiting. And more, well, you get the picture. At least I had some time to play with my new camera.

Have you figured out where we are yet? Thats right! Our first park of the trip was Magic Kingdom. We were let into the park about 7:45 AM and I sent Adam off to check in for breakfast, while I took some more pictures.

Before I knew it, Adam was running up to get me saying breakfast was waiting for us. So, off we went to....

I just want to take a moment and reflect on the fact that this place is absolutely gorgeous! I mean both inside and out. I wanted to take pictures of it, but for some reason, I can't find them on photobucket.

Our servers name was Jay, and he was wonderful. Very attentive and even made a funny Brett Favre joke (this was pre-photo scandal days). He was the perfect balance of attentive and non-intrusive for a buffet breakfast. I will warn you that I did not take any pictures of food at buffets. I was really good at capturing the food porn at table service restaurants though. I hope to get over this irrational phobia on our next trip!

We were able to belly up to the buffet and grab a plate before the characters started making their way around. At this point the place was half empty! In fact, we never did have a party seated next to us before we left.
Heres a few pictures:

For a buffet, this was aboslutely awesome! Really wonderful variety, I'm not sure you could find a breakfast food that you would want that was not on this buffet! It also got an extra bonus for being the only buffet we went to that offered chocolate Mickey waffles. Delish! Great selection of both cut and whole fruits, a niced mixed berry blend of raspberries, strawberries, blueberries and blackberries. Also whole strawberries with cream, yogurts, swiss and cheddar cheese in cubes, whole boiled eggs, a wonderful spiced peach cobbler, chocolate crossaints, banana bread, Pooh's puffed french toast, glazed donut holes, pastrami smoked salmon, roasted baby reds, sausage, bacon, egg frittata (which really was not a frittata at all, just scrambled eggs with sliced tomatoes and cheese on top), omelettes to order, bagels, breakfast pizza, corned beef hash. I'm sure there was in fact more, but that is all I managed to jot down.

By the time we were done with breakfast it was only about 8:45, so we had lots of time left before the park opened. I used it to snap some more pictures.

Woohoo! Now it was time for the park to open, so we headed off for our first ride of the day....

Up Next: Part 2 of Day One 2010

 

[JessicaKnits]

So, before the break, we were just about to head off for our first ride of our trip!

This was always one of my favorites at Disneyland. I'm really glad we got the opportunity to ride it before we went on Kilimanjaro Safaris, because it really will never be the same again. Did they change the shtick that the skipper does? For some reason I remember it being a lot funnier than what it was.

Next we went here...

Afterwards, we found this in the gift shop...

It "had" to come home with us.

We made our way onto Splash Mountain...

Before walking past the Liberty Belle Riverboat to wave (it was closed for renovations most of our trip...)

And then we made it over to Liberty Square where we stopped here:

By this time we were already about an hour ahead of our Ridemax plan. Where were all the people??

We had some fun...

We sent this picture out as a Gag Christmas card with the tagline "Hope your Christmas is as happy as ours is!" Really, we did.

Then we went to meet our 999 happy haunts here:

At this time we were running out of things to do, our plan was basically over till the end of the day, and it was about an hour before our lunch ADR, we headed over anyway, and they were able to accomodate us.

Up Next: Our Liberty Tree Tavern Lunch!

 

[JessicaKnits]

Below is an excerpt from my 2010 dining review.

Before we even knew it, it was time for lunch, and to be honest, neither of us was really hungry, but somehow we managed. Our server's name on the receipt shows as Consuelo, but I think for some reason that her name was Consuela.

We started with

Crab and Spinach Dip for Two - blue crab, spinach, cream cheese and flatbread $10.99

This was the only time all trip I encountered artificial crab meat, so I'm really not sure why they went through the extra trouble of listing this as "Blue" crab on the menu, because it definitely was not. This tasted like your run of the mill spinach dip, similar to what you would get from TGI Fridays. No crab flavor at all. But, it was good, and the pitas served with it came out warm, but didn't stay like that for very long. I had a problem with the fact that our server neglected to bring out any plates for this, and they also don't have cloth napkins here (not that paper naps are a problem at all). So we ate our aps over unfolded paper napkins on the table, which was a little awkward, but neccessary, since they Pita's were crisp and toasted it was really difficult to control our crumbs.

It was right about this time that Consuelo (a?) disappeared for a long time. She never checked back with us after dropping our ap, which is why we never got plates for it. Our entree's arrived, and were brought by someone completely different, who also didn't bother to clear away our obviously finished appetizer plate.

But enough whining, on to food.

I got the Tri-Corner Sandwich - roast beef and swiss cheese with Liberty Slaw, horseradish cream sauce and arugula served on herbed focaccia with fresh fruit or tavern fries $11.49.

This sandwich was awesome. The roast beef was very moist, and the really strong horseradish cream was nicely balanced with the sweetness of the slaw. The fries also arrived piping hot and gloriously crispy on the outside, and light and fluffy on the inside.

Adam went with Pilgrims' Feast - traditional roast turkey with herb bread dressing, mashed potatoes and a garden vegetable $14.99.

This is best described as Thanksgiving, in August, on your plate. Very moist turkey, delicious mashed potatoes, fresh green beans and gravy. This dish got a big thumbs up from the self proclaimed king of meat and potatoes.

It was really lucky that our food was all to our liking and nothing was wrong, because we never saw Consuela until after our entree's were finished and our plates were cleared. In fact, our plates were taken by the next door table's waitress, who had walked by on 3 different occasions after we had finished our meal, and I think felt sorry for us that our plates hadn't been cleared.

After another 5 minutes she finally reappeared to take our dessert order.

Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake -- vanilla cake with a gooey toffee filling, vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce $6.49 for me.

Chocolate Brownie - dark chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream $5.99 for Adam.

So, I will say that both desserts were very tasty. But mine was not a cake, and Adam's was not a brownie. Mine had the exact texture of a chocolate chip cookie when you bake them in a pan as bars instead of individual cookies, and Adam's was just like Devil's Food Cake; neither rich nor fudgy like you expect from a brownie, and his cake, despite being ala mode and covered in ice cream, was pretty dry.

The food here did the job, but service left a lot to be desired.

After lunch, we headed back to the hotel to dry out. It was HOT! On our way out we caught the tail end of this...

And this...

Up Next: Our Dinner ADR from Night 1, and our 1st night in the Magic Kingdom

 

[JessicaKnits]

So, after a nice rest at the hotel and a quick dip in the pool, we got ready to head off to dinner. Of course, as soon as we were ready to head to the bus stop, it started pouring (a recurring theme of the trip), but thankfully I had my trusty $15 poncho with me!

Dinner tonight was at...

And below is an excerpt from my dining report. I did edit this post, as we had a pretty icky experience there. It is not worth re-hashing as time has faded our scars from it. It was also just really gross, and this is supposed to be a happy report! I will sum it up with this: There was vomit (not ours) that went un-mopped up in the area where the servers are bringing out the food. We were at the very end of our meal when this happened. Obviously, it was a very off night. As I mentioned though, time has healed us, lol. Adam wants a delicious steak, so hopefully we get one on our next trip.

Leading up to our trip here, I really really talked this place up to Adam. I have always read good reviews on the food and service, and this restaurant definitely was on my "nothing to worry about" list leading up to our departure. Adam lives for steak and I booked a reservation here specifically with him in mind. Sadly we had a some major issues here, one with the food, and another with service, including a truly disturbing incident that I will describe as we go on here.

Things started off well enough, and we were in really high spirits leading up to this dinner:

Our server's name was Ben, and he was really excellent. He had an awesome Brooklyn accent, and he was very attentive. He obviously had a lot of experience serving. I ordered the Pineapple Flambe cocktail, and Adam had a Whiskey Sour. In Wisconsin these almost always come served with pickled mushrooms as a garnish. When Adam requested them, Ben didn't know what they were and had honestly never heard this request before. This was really funny, and Ben earned major points by bringing out a little sampler of all the garnishes the bar did offer for Adam to choose from. At this time, Ben explained that he would be assisted that evening by another server, Joey, and that both would be taking care of us. This is where things kind of started to fall apart and get weird. I'm not sure what was really going on. Ben clearly wasn't training Joey or the other way around, because they never interacted with eachother. There was clearly no communication between the two of them about who was taking care of what, and as a result, our dinner was interrupted about 5 or 6 times for the same thing, once by Ben, and once by Joey. Not very enjoyable, but definitely a do able situation.

For apps, I had the Black and Blue Beef Tartare - White Truffle Dressing and Pea Tendrils $16.00

I've had about a million beef tartares in my life...and I have to say, this one ranks very near the top. This was wonderfully seasoned and dressed. There was also a blue cheese cream with this that went beautifully with the beef. The tartare was special enough on its own that this dish would have been fine without it.

Adam had the Tomato and Buffalo Mozzarella. Heirloom Tomatoes, Basil, Garlic, warm Focaccia and aged Balsamic. $13.00

Another really well seasoned dish. According to Adam, perfectly ripened tomatoes, the freshest mozzarella he has ever had, and wonderfully aged balsamic.

No one came to check on us after our appetizers were brought, Ben arrived first to clear the dishes, and Joey followed a few minutes later to clear the already cleared plates.

Now, it was about this time that the table next to us, a family of four, with a young child under two, and a boy about 8, really started to bother me. I want to preface by saying that I welcome children at all restaurants, not just at Disney World. However, I do feel that if your youngest is wailing so hard her face is beet red, and your oldest is repeatedly screaming about how he doesn't feel well, then I think its apparent to all involved (except the parents) that maybe you just need to give up on the night out. Both children continued screaming...but really, what can you do in this situation? We just moved on and did the best we could to tune it out.

For entree's, I had the Braised Beef Ravioli. Garden Vegetables, Blue Cheese Fondue, and Cabernet Jus $32.00

Now, there were hardly any garden vegetables with this dish, but I can't say I missed them. There was some well seasoned wilted spinach over the top. This dish was absolute perfection. Well seasoned beef, tender, fresh pasta, creamy blue cheese fondue that had a nice sharpness to it.

Adam had Oak-fired Rib-Eye - 16-oz Boneless Rib-Eye, hand-breaded onion rings, and Red Wine Butter $43.00. This dish was supposed to come with onion rings, but came with mashed potatoes, with no explanation. Adam happens to prefer mash, so this wasn't a problem.

This is were the food problem started. Adam ordered his steak medium rare. Before he even cut into it, I could tell it was rare. When he cut into the middle, it was deep red and ice cold. For a restaurant that specializes in steak, this really should not have gone without notice, especially when there was a chef standing right at the pass expediting the meal. We simply just sent it back, and when it came back the second time was done correctly. Now, about 2 inches into the steak, Adam encountered some tendon and gristle. So, we were presented with the age old question. Do you send the whole steak back and have them start again, or do you assume that its just that one little piece and that the rest will be fine and continue on. We unfortunately assumed in this case, and, well, we all know what happens then. At least 1/3 of his steak turned out to be completely inedible. By the end, he had quite a mound of unedible tendons piled up on his plate. Now this was not fat, but actual tendon that could not be chewed. I'm not even kidding when I say the pile was easily the size of one of my gigantic raviolis. This was just a really really terrible cut of meat. They should have been embarrassed to serve it, and obviously quality control was lacking here. Even though we had two waiters, no one bothered to check on us after the steak came back (which was brought by a food runner). Now, after you have finished eating the steak, you can't very well ask for another one, and we didn't. But I was really surprised when Ben came to clear the dishes and obviously saw a huge mound of something inedible sitting there, that he still didn't ask us how anything was. If we weren't on the dining plan, we would have handled things differently. We just resolved to the fact that what was done was done and moved on to dessert.

Split Seconds later, dessert arrived. I had the tasting of Pistachio. Chiffon Cake, gelato, valrhona chocolate mousse, and panna cotta.

There was no panna cotta as described. The gelato was fabulous, as was the mousse. I'm not sure what it was that caused it, but the chiffon cake was extremely sour, and did not taste at all like pistachio. A so so dessert.

Adam had the creme brulee. It was a creme brulee. Nothing really special about it, but it did the job.

After dinner, we headed back over to the Magic Kingdom, which was hosting Extra Magic Hours.

Word of warning, don't ride the tea cups after dinner.

Our last ride of the night was Mickey's Philharmagic, LOVED LOVED LOVED this!

Up Next: Movie Night - Pinocchio

 

[JessicaKnits]

So, the first thing I noticed watching Pinocchio was that the DVD has a PSA on how smoking is bad for you. Was this included when we were kids too? I thought it was funny! "Smoking is bad for you (Insert clip of sweet little Pinocchio turning green when he smokes)." They didn't have one on 101 Dalmations, and let face it, Cruella smoked like a chimney in that movie.

Anyhow, just a quick update with the food. I made Strombolis. Eh, thats pretty clever, right? These are super easy to make and super yummy. I just bought a pre-made pizza crust (The kind that comes in a tube like biscuits). Cut it in half before you un-roll it. Then, I gave it a good smear of ranch dressing, tp that with diced pepperoni, a bit of diced green onion, and lots of mozzarella cheese. Then just roll up! Place seem side down on a greased baking sheet, brush the tops with a little egg wash and bake according to the directions on the package. I serve this with a side of marinara for dipping. You could also replace the ranch with marinara if you prefer. The end result?

We had these on a Friday night, and were also frying "Figaro's Fresh-Caught Fish Sticks". And they are Figaro's, not Cleo's because well, that is just morbid. Didn't grab a picture of the fish, but it looked like your normal fried fish!

Up Next: January 22nd (Day 2 Plans)

 

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

Your themed dinners are so clever! I love the stromboli idea! I haven't seen Pinocchio in forever, but that PSA sounds very cute! (So not the point of a PSA, right?)

 

[JessicaKnits]

Your themed dinners are so clever! I love the stromboli idea! I haven't seen Pinocchio in forever, but that PSA sounds very cute! (So not the point of a PSA, right?)

True, so not the point! But it was still awfully cute.

 

[dreamerchic33]

LOVE your movie nights!!! i think i will have to start doing these!!!

 

[JessicaKnits]

LOVE your movie nights!!! i think i will have to start doing these!!!

They really are tons of fun and a great way to get excited about the trip!

 

[JessicaKnits]

Hopefully we will sleep well on our first night, always a difficult task when you are so excited about your first day in Disney! Now that we are "seasoned vets" at Disney, I know that we do not need to be up at sunrise at 6:00AM to catch a bus for breakfast. So, it will be nice to be able to sleep in for a change. Once everyone is up and dressed for the weather, which is hopefully bright and sunshine-y. Then, its off to the bus stop to catch a ride to our first park of the trip. Any guesses on where that will be? Any?

Well, its a little obvious maybe...

For our first park of the trip...

We are off to the wonderful...

The Magical...

The terrific...

And stupendous...

And I'm stalling so that the picture doesn't show up right away...

Maybe one more line...

Or maybe two...

One more for good luck...

Ok...I think this should be good...

The Magic Kingdom! It's probably not the best park choice for a Sunday, but I just can't bring myself to go anywhere else on our first day. There is nothing like the amazing feeling you get when you walk in here. Our first stop for the day will be for breakfast, and not surprisingly it is here:

After what is sure to be a wonderful and amazing and delicious breakfast, we will begin our journey here:

We will catch the Jungle River Cruise, then off to Pirates of the Caribbean before we head over to...

Well, not to the Railroad Station, but over to Frontierland so we can ride on Splash Mountain (provided its not too cold) and then on to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. I would like to check out Tom Sawyer Island so we can say that we did it. We might try for Big Thunder once more when we get back from Tom Sawyer Island depending on how far ahead of our Ridemax plan we will be. Then its off to...

We might try to ride this if there is time...

And then we will head over to

And have a nice relaxing time here...

Before we visit the happy haunts here...

Then we will head over to Fantasyland to enjoy the rides before stopping off for lunch here...

I know, this is beginning to look an awful lot like our first trip, but I really didn't know where else we could go for lunch inside the park, and since we had a tasty meal here last trip, why not make it a repeat?

Once we are done with lunch, we will finish up with any leftover rides or shopping on the "left" side of the park, and then try and find a nice spot to watch the parade, which we missed on our last trip.

Once the parade is over, it is back to the hotel for a few hours to rest and hopefully enjoy the beautiful pools at CSR.

After a nice relaxing rest, then its off to the beach!

The Poly Beach that is so that we can catch the Wishes Fireworks.

Once the Fireworks are done, we will head inside here...

for dinner. I am really hoping we catch them on a good night. I think opinions of Ohana are very one sided. You either loved it or you hated it. We are meat loving, bread pudding loving kind of people, so I hope this is enjoyable for us!

They are hosting Extra Magic Hours at Magic Kingdom this night, so perhaps we will pop on over after dinner to check things out!

 

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

Your first day sounds like so much fun! That's actually very similar to what we're thinking our first full day will be like - CP for breakfast, then going around the park (starting with Adventureland first! It just feels strange to me to go around the other way ).

I really want to try to get on the Liberty Belle this time. I've never ridden it, but it looks so peaceful and pretty!

 

[JessicaKnits]

Your first day sounds like so much fun! That's actually very similar to what we're thinking our first full day will be like - CP for breakfast, then going around the park (starting with Adventureland first! It just feels strange to me to go around the other way ).

I really want to try to get on the Liberty Belle this time. I've never ridden it, but it looks so peaceful and pretty!

You'll really like it! It is like a self-imposed time out. Its just nice to circle around and there are some great photo ops.

 

[JessicaKnits]

So after a lovely night at the Magic Kingdom, we were up once again bright and early to catch the first bus to the Magic Kingdom so we could hop on the monorail to the Poly.

A few pics...

We had a 7:30 AM breakfast at Kona Cafe, and here is the exerpt from my 2010 Dining Review.

We started Day 3 off with a bang with a much anticipated breakfast at Kona. We were planning on going to Magic Kingdom that day, so we made a 7:30 reservation, in hopes of making it to MK by rope drop. Should be no problem, right? Not if you have David for your server!

We arrived to the Polynesian by taking the 630AM bus to Magic Kingdom from the Pop, and then monorailing it over the Poly. Even with a delay on the monorail (the train in front of ours had technical issues) we made it in plenty of time and were checked in by 7:20.

When we were seated, we were the only people in the entire place, sort of weird feeling actually! David came right over to us, along with a trainee. She must have been in her first day of training, because David actually started off by explaining how to find out which dining plan we had on our cards. He recommended the Lilikoi juice (not that I would have chosen anything else!) so we both got that as our juice. Adam then got coffee as his second beverage choice, and I went with the Megaberry smoothie. Lilikoi juice was AWESOME! I was really excited to try and make some at home, but for some reason, its really hard to find Guava juice in WI, or at least by us, but I am still working on that. I also ordered the Samoan Benedict and Adam went with the Steak and Eggs. I had read on the DIS shortly before we left that the Samoan had been removed, and I was pretty sad about that, but was pleasantly surprised to see it had returned!

The Somoan - poached eggs with Hollandaise served over smoked pulled pork hash $9.99

Steak and Eggs - A char-grilled New York Strip steak served with two eggs, home-fries potatoes, and biscuit $14.49

In between ordering, and our entree's actually arriving, a group of about 8 was sat right next to us. 4 adults and 4 kids. And that is where the service took a big hit. Even with that large group, it was still just us the larger group and one table next to us, who had a different waiter.

I have to say, the Samoan was delicious. Egg was perfectly poached, warmed through, but the center was still runny, and really excellent hollandaise sauce. The real star of the dish was the pulled pork. It had an amazing smokey flavor, but was wonderfully moist and tender. At first I was a little put off by the greens for breakfast, but they mellowed out the really intense flavor of the pork and hollandaise. A+ on this dish.

The steak and eggs also got a big thumbs up, and Adam said this steak was more tender than last nights steak at the Yachtsman. Ouch. His eggs were also done perfectly. He ordered them over easy.

After we had finished eating, we sat. And we waited. And then we waited some more, all the while with dirty plates sitting on our table. David had made two trips to the big group behind us in the mean time. Now, I think we all agree, that any waiter worth his salt should be able to handle a group of 8 + a group of 2, especially when the restaurant was 90% empty. It was now a little past 8:15 and I was getting antsy, because I really really wanted to make rope drop. Right before I was about to say something, the check finally arrived, but he left our plates. It was now after 8:30 and David still hadn't come to take our check back with our card in it, and I was getting super irritated. I suppose this was a little bit my fault for not just shoving the card in and handing it back to him before he had a chance to run off again. I finally gave in and asked the waiter that was at the table next to us if he would please take our check back and close it out, because we were really in a hurry. He was very kind and gracious, and even took our dirty plates back, without us asking.

David then reappeared and in a really snotty tone said "Sorrrrrry that it got busy guys". And that was it I won't lie, I let out a little chuckle at that. Really? Busy with three tables in the restaurant? It wasn't like we were eating next door at Ohana. I didn't even go there with him. I was too mad that we weren't going to make it for rope drop.

Another real shame as far as service goes, because the food here is truly excellent. Absolutely would not hesitate to eat here again. But if they tried to give me David as a server again, I would request someone else.

So, since we were a little late for rope drop, we had to make a mad dash for our first ride of the day, which was Space Mountain. We were still able to ride it twice, with very minimal wait. Then we took a quick spin on Buzz Lightyear and once on Stitch's Great Escape. NO THANK YOU to those Chili Cheese burps! We then headed back to Adventureland for a nice leisurely stroll through here...

After the treehouse, we decided to head on over and check out the Enchanted Tiki Room.

I really did not care for this at all, but it was nice to say that we did it once!

By now it was unreasonably hot, and we had for the most part gotten on all of our "must do" rides. So we stopped off for a quick snack...

And went back to the hotel for some pool time.

Up Next...Flashback: Day 2 of 2010 Trip (Part 2) - Includes Wolfgang Puck Cafe and the Wishes Dessert Party