I Wonder if Disney Will Get Mad if We Disassemble the Furniture. Sept/Oct 2024 TR! (Updated 5/3!)

[VAtink]

I remember as a kid being so excited to come back to the room and see what my stuffed animal friends were up to. I'm glad to see that some housekeepers are carrying on the tradition. So sorry you weren't feeling well. Ale & Compass seems to perpetually run behind schedule, in my experience. It's frustrating. They recently changed the burger, and I didn't enjoy it as much.

Yes! I love when they do stuff like that. My favorite was the time I had my own room and every day housekeeping would make a new towel animal and put it on the bed I wasn't using, by the end of the week I had a whole farm of towel animals! I wish they still did those on a regular basis, it was so fun!

I was surprised how behind they were at Ale and Compass, but at least they had availability that night so we could get something good and close for dinner. Oh on, I can't believe they changed the burger, it was so good!

 

[VAtink]

We had a trip years ago that was just before a hurricane in the first few days of October. The humidity was terrible.

Yeah, it's amazing how much the humidity ramps up just before hurricanes!

Ale & Compass comes in handy. We will often eat dinner there when staying at the YC/BC. I like that it tends to be a much quieter restaurant than most restaurants.

It really is nice to have right there at the YC. We've never had a bad meal there and it's great for days we don't feel like going anywhere.

 

[VAtink]

Yikes!! Once you stop sweating, you are on the verge of some serious trouble. I'm glad you got some salt with dinner. Water is good but at that point, you have sweat so much, you really need the electrolytes and/or salt to help. Also, a cool (but not cold) shower will help as well. Just for next time. And also, things I am writing down now to hopefully remember in May.

Oh yeah, when I realized I had stopped sweating I knew I was in trouble. I was a lifeguard for many years and have had to deal with guests with heat exhaustion and heat stroke, but it was wild when it was actually happening to me! Fortunately I had brought all that Pedialyte with me, so that helped, plus I'm sure the salt from the burger and fries helped too. Glad I recovered pretty quickly, and now I know not to push myself when it's that hot out!

 

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Day 9, Part 1: Finally a Pool Day!​

We got to sleep in a bit this morning, yay! Our alarms were set for 9, but our noisy neighbors ended up waking us up around 8. Oh well, at least it wasn’t too early! And thankfully we didn’t go to Jellyrolls the night before and get home after 2am!

We took our time getting ready and eating breakfast, this morning we just had a blueberry muffin we had picked up from the store downstairs. Also, random aside, one of my favorite memories from going to Disney as a kid was when we stayed in the BC, my dad would get up early before everyone else and run over to the Boardwalk Bakery and pick us up blueberry muffins each morning, so to me blueberry muffins are 100% a Disney thing. So this morning brough back all the happy memories from those days!

Anyways, since we had been having atrocious luck with getting to the pool this trip (seriously every day we went down they closed it for storms), we decided this morning to head straight to the pool to hopefully actually get a daytime swim in! We had tried to get a cabana for this day, I figured being day 9 we'd have no issues getting one, but shockingly they were already sold out!

We headed out around 9:45, and then got stuck waiting for an elevator. I don’t know what was going on, maybe some of the elevators were out of service, but we waited over 10 minutes for one to finally arrive, and when it did it was packed. We were able to squeeze in, but it was wild, never have seen anything like that before here!

When we got down to the pool we were a bit confused since people had formed three lines to get in, two against the pool fence, one extending towards the BC and another towards the YC. Then a third line against the building extending towards the YC. And there were about 10-12 guests in each line.

Now, in the past when we’ve come at opening, the line has been against the pool fence and extended towards the YC. So we got into that one since that’s normally the line we’ve seen. Well, the people in the front of the BC line were getting all angry and kept yelling that we were all trying to cut them and that they were the “real” line. Really guys? As the line behind us kept growing, so did their anger. It would have been funny, but these guys were just getting nastier and nastier and starting calling the people not in their line names and just being total pathetic grumps. And the crazy thing is, they were in the wrong line the entire time. What idiots.

Finally, a CM came out to start putting wristbands on people, and the funniest thing happened. Just as they came out to do that, a huge family arrived, and cut in front of everyone to get their wristbands and head into the pool first. I thought those grumpy men in the wrong line would lose it when that happened, but they didn’t go too crazy! Plus they kind of deserved it, shortly before opening they had over 15 people join them, so they went from a party of two to a party of like 20! So really if we’re talking about cutting the line, they were worse than almost all the other groups!

Once we were finally let into the pool area, we quickly dropped our stuff off at the chairs, then headed over to the lazy river to enjoy before it got crowded.

We did a bunch of laps in there, it was so relaxing!

We spent a lot of time exploring the other areas of the pool as well this morning.

Around 11:45 we started to get hungry, so when the CM came around to take orders we ordered some lunch. I got the chicken sandwich and the sunshine margarita, and mom got the chicken salad.

It didn’t take long for the food to arrive. It was all really good! Sorry no pictures, I didn’t bring my phone with me to the pool.

We spent a few hours down at the pool, did a bit more swimming after lunch, and lounged around a bit too.

A little after 1:00 we made our way upstairs to shower and relax.

We ended up watching football for a while and just enjoyed some quality downtime.

Next up: Victoria and Alberts – Chefs Table – Part 1​

 

[Wood Nymph]

People line up early to get their favorite spot at SAB. It can be cutthroat, I guess. My gripe is when they take the best seats and tables and then disappear for six hours. But that's another topic.

We spent a few hours down at the pool, did a bit more swimming after lunch, and lounged around a bit too.

That sounds like a lovely day at the pool.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

I don't think I've ever rope-dropped the Stormalong Bay (I tend to prefer the quiet pools) but that sounds INTENSE! Yikes! OMG I didn't remember you did Chef's Table ... cannot wait to hear ALL about it!!!!

 

[Stacybaeasm]

Oy! The best and worst part of Disney is usually the people. Sounds like you got the worst this morning. But what a relaxing day. I really, really need to take a page from your book and spend more time relaxing. I go to the parks enough that I don't NEED to go commando but then, sometimes I forget that.

And the lazy river! Gosh I loved that the 1 time I've been at Beach Club. I remember just floating in circles for a couple of hours. Every few laps, my companion would call "Beer exit" and get out to grab a beer and drink it, then yell "Merging traffic" and get back in to join me again. Good times.

 

[VAtink]

People line up early to get their favorite spot at SAB. It can be cutthroat, I guess. My gripe is when they take the best seats and tables and then disappear for six hours. But that's another topic.

Yeah, it really can be sometimes! And YES! I hate when people go down to reserve chairs and then leave for hours!

That sounds like a lovely day at the pool.

It was really nice, sometimes a pool day is the perfect day.

 

[VAtink]

I don't think I've ever rope-dropped the Stormalong Bay (I tend to prefer the quiet pools) but that sounds INTENSE! Yikes! OMG I didn't remember you did Chef's Table ... cannot wait to hear ALL about it!!!!

Haha, I will say I've never seen it quite that bad. Usually it's more organized and that was probably the most crowded pool rope drop I've seen there. I can't wait to get into the chefs table posts! I need to find the menu since I've completely forgotten what everything was that we ate, but hopefully I'll get that put together this weekend.

 

[VAtink]

Oy! The best and worst part of Disney is usually the people. Sounds like you got the worst this morning. But what a relaxing day. I really, really need to take a page from your book and spend more time relaxing. I go to the parks enough that I don't NEED to go commando but then, sometimes I forget that.

Right?! Yeah we got some grumps there that morning. It can be so hard to relax while at Disney, we're not always great at it either, but when we do we always say we need to do it more often!

And the lazy river! Gosh I loved that the 1 time I've been at Beach Club. I remember just floating in circles for a couple of hours. Every few laps, my companion would call "Beer exit" and get out to grab a beer and drink it, then yell "Merging traffic" and get back in to join me again. Good times.

I love the lazy river, when it's empty. Sometimes it gets so packed it's not super enjoyable, but first thing in the morning it's great. I especially love the newer chair floats they have there, those are so comfortable!

 

[GGOOFY1]

Did you try to book a cabana at 60 days? We are going in September and I wanted to book one for our pool day

 

[VAtink]

Did you try to book a cabana at 60 days? We are going in September and I wanted to book one for our pool day

We did, usually we have had zero problem getting one at 60+5 and later, so I was shocked they were fully booked through 60+9 this time. I'm still holding out hope with the current pool renovation they'll add a few more cabanas!

 

[VAtink]

Day 9, Part 2: Victoria and Alberts – Chefs Table – Part 1​

We last left off taking a nice long afternoon break and watching football. After a while we started to get ready for our big night out!

Around 4 I called for a Minnie Van, and finally got one about 10 minutes later. It wasn’t scheduled to arrive until about 4:30, so we spent some more time finishing getting ready and resting.

A bit before 4:30 we made our way down to the lobby and soon after our car was pulling up!

We arrived at the Grand Floridian around 4:45, and make our way into the lobby. We were a bit early, but I had wanted to get some pictures of us all dressed up before dinner and enjoy the pianist in the lobby a bit as well.

We got some pictures when we first entered, then went to watch the pianist a bit. While there, I kept noticing a flash from upstairs, and then I remembered the glass slipper picture they have and realized that’s what the flash was! So we made our way up to the second floor and got in line for that picture.







We took a few more pictures around the lobby after that, and finally around 5:20 we headed over to the entrance of Victoria and Alberts.



There was another group already there waiting, so we got in line behind them.

Finally, just after 5:30, a CM came out of the restaurant and completely bypassed the group in front of us and came directly to us! I guess since we were eating at the chefs table, we got priority?

We were led back to the kitchen, and we were shocked when we entered the kitchen that chefs, kitchen staff, and the wait staff were lining the sides of the aisle and applauding us as we walked by! It was so wild, definitely didn’t have that happen the last time we ate at the chefs table!

We were brought back to our table, which obviously looks into the kitchen. They had changed things around a bit since the last time we ate here, the kitchen seemed more open to us, and the table was new. One of my favorite things about the seating, which is such a small thing, but I still love, is they had purse stools! I quietly joked that you know it’s a fancy place when they even provide you a seat for your purse!









Once we settled in, the chef for that night, chef Miguel came over to introduce himself and talk a bit about the food we’d be having that night. He was great, super personable, and I was shocked that throughout the night he was the one who actually came over to describe many of the dishes. Our last time here the waiters described them, so to have the actual chef come over to talk about them with us was amazing, especially since he really seemed to love answering questions!

I was also surprised they stopped doing the whole “everyone’s name is Vicotria or Albert”. Last time we ate there all the servers were called either Victoria or Albert, but I liked this better getting their real names.

This evening, we decided to go with the wine pairing, and I’m so glad we did! Every wine was fantastic, I’m still trying to find some of them locally to get again, they were really good!

Before the wine pairing began, we were served a non-alcoholic drink to prepare our pallets.



This was good, had a very herbal taste to it, and was very refreshing.

The first course was an amuse bouche course, with three small bites. They were: Iberico Jamon (Iberico pork), Oxtail with Asian Pear and Guinness Stout, and a Loup de Mer (white fish) with Malt Vinegar and Capers.



The chef was still talking to us when these were brought out, so he took the time to go over each one and explain the ingredients. We did have a slight snafu with this one since one of mine ended up falling off the plate as it was being brought over. The waiter was super apologetic though and rush back to the kitchen to get me a replacement. The chef told us that’s the last time that could happen that night since they only had enough ingredients each night for one extra of things, so I ended up with the extra one!







The loup de mer ended up being the favorite for both of us, followed closely by the oxtail. The Iberico jamon was delicious, but was on a puff pastry that slightly overpowered the dish so points were deducted for that!

With this course, and the following, our wine pairing was a Brut Rose. One thing we appreciated, after finishing our glasses with the first course not being aware that it was meant for both courses, they gladly refilled our glasses!

Next up: Victoria and Alberts – Chefs Table – Part 2​

 

[Wood Nymph]

We were led back to the kitchen, and we were shocked when we entered the kitchen that chefs, kitchen staff, and the wait staff were lining the sides of the aisle and applauding us as we walked by! It was so wild, definitely didn’t have that happen the last time we ate at the chefs table!

That's really impressive. The special attention by the chef must have been nice.

I can't wait to hear more.

 

[rdkeim]

Fancy! Interested to hear about the rest of your meal and final thoughts!

 

[Stacybaeasm]

I can't wait to hear more about your V&A experience. This is something I will never do, but I love hearing about it from others!

 

[VAtink]

That's really impressive. The special attention by the chef must have been nice.

I can't wait to hear more.

This really is such a special experience, and we were so impressed how much time the chef spent with us this time around! Last time we got to chat with the chef for a minute right at the start, and got a picture with her at the end, but during the meal there was no interaction, so we really loved how personable this new chef was!

 

[VAtink]

Fancy! Interested to hear about the rest of your meal and final thoughts!

Haha, yeah crazy fancy, and so good! They really don't disappoint with the food there.

 

[VAtink]

I can't wait to hear more about your V&A experience. This is something I will never do, but I love hearing about it from others!

Haha, well you're in luck, updates coming shortly!

 

[VAtink]

Day 9, Part 3: Victoria and Alberts – Chefs Table – Part 2​

We last left off finishing up our amuse bouche course.

The next course was the caviar course, it was Imperial Kaluga with Mezcal and Avocado.



This was delicious. The mezcal provided an amazing smokey flavor which went beautifully with the creaminess of the avocado. For this dish, the chef came over again to tell us about it, and it turns out, he’s the one who came up with this dish! He recommended trying just the caviar first and then tasting it with everything else on the dish to compare, and the difference in flavors was shocking!

The third course was a Danish Hiramasa with Gooseberry and Coriander. This was a gorgeous fish dish and was paired with an Italian white wine blend. I fell in love with this wine and am still searching for it in my stores!





While eating we ended up chatting with one of the chefs closest to us, he ended up being super nice and entertaining, we ended up chatting with him throughout the night and he would explain to us what he was doing with the food a lot which was a really cool insight!

Course four was a Wild Turbot with Spanish Carabinero, and Calabrian Chili. This was paired with a Spanish white wine, that was also delicious and a bit heavier than the first white.





This was a really nice fish, and had the tiniest kick to it thanks to the chili. We loved this dish!

The next dish, course five, was a Maine Lobster with Corn Agnolotti, and Raspberry Sambal. This was paired with a delicious white wine from France. We also had a bread service with this course. While the bread was delicious, we didn't eat much since there was still so much more food coming!





This was amazing, one of our top dishes of the night!

After five courses of fish, it was time to move on to a different protein!

Next up: Victoria and Alberts – Chefs Table – Part 3!​