In Progress Trip Report Day 1 - 11/4

[T Morrows Child]

Whoo Hoo! Adults only getaway began yesterday! Kids are with grandma, and all is set for a long weekend visiing food and wine.

It was a nice, uneventful plane ride down from Milwaukee. Magical Express worked out just fine, stopping at the Poly and Grand Floridian before dropping us at the Wilderness Lodge.

Best part about check-in was how they acknowledged my wife's "Personal Triumph" with a button and greeting. Better than that, a manager came over and congratulated us . . . we had been been upgraded to the club level!

We were taken to our room by Drew, who was really terrific. We were given a chocolate canoe welcome amenity - filled with individual chocolates and sporting the Wilderness Lodge logo. Then he opened our drapes to show us a terrific view of Cinderella's castle ahead and the Contemporary on the right!

Even without a club upgrade, the Wilderness is a beautiful resort. It is a great place to just relax and hang out on a break or a non-park day.

After settling into the room, we grabbed a bus to Downtown Disney. The wait wasn't too bad (about 10 minutes), but the ride certainly took a while! We first went over to the Grand Floridian and then doubled back toward DD. We were the only 2 on the bus for the mid-afternoon trip, meaning that the A/C was particularly cold!

Must do's at Downtown Disney - the retro (especially Shag) items are very cool at Art of Disney. The store is worthwhile as a gallery stop. We also highly recommend the cupcake tops over at Babycakes NYC! Fully vegan bakery with delicious and decadent items. (We also wanted to thank the crew there for taking care of our friends a few weeks ago. Their son has severe food allergies, and they arranged a vegan cake to be delivered to his birthday lunch in the Magic Kingdom!)

The wait for the bus back to the resort was tough . . . in the end, the trip back to the hotel took us 55 minutes. We missed our rental car, but all was fine.

After enjoying a glass of wine in the club lounge, we had dinner in Artist Point. What a terrific meal! Our server was Keith (we posted his photo so you can seek him out for great service!), who was personable, knowledgable, and efficient. Kristine ordered the Cedar Planked Salmon and I had the Pork Tenderloin. As a complimentary amuse bouche, Keith brought over two small samples of their sweetbreads and strongly recommended that we try something new. It was helped by the bottle of wine that we ordered; I doubt we'd have tried them without it! In short, we are not sweetbread fans. My wife, in particular, was . . . let's just say she didn't care for it. But it was fun. And the real joke came when Keith asked us how we liked it and admitted that he doesn't like them, himself!

The meal was fabulously prepared, and the salmon was brought out on a cedar plank and plated at the table. It was delicious, and the emphasis was on the natural flavors and not seasonings or salts. More than the salmon, Kristine really loved the vegetables, including carrots, baby squash, and some other fall vegetables.

My pork tenderloin was nicely done and served with a tasty polenta and roasted figs. I'd rate the meal as quite tasty, but I kept sneaking bites of the salmon . . . mmmm.

A nitecap in the room, and we were to bed early - Extra Magic Morning at Hollywood Studios! Then we hope to be in the MK tonight as there is Extra Magic through the Daylight Savings Clock changes! We have the chance to be in the park at 1:30am twice today!

 

[saintstickets]

Looking forward to your TR and stay at WL. We are visiting VWL for the 1st time next May so any tips will be appreciated. DW and I took a "no kids" trip last year and had a blast! We ate where we would not normally eat, took our time (no commando), took a tour and visited all the resorts to see the Christmas decorations. I hope y'all have as fantastic of a time that we did. Can't wait to read more about your trip and hope there are lots of pics.

 

[T Morrows Child]

Well, as promised, we really pushed it yesterday. We were loving the freedom of being "kid-less," although I think it's more about reducing our party from 4 to 2 people that is the real key. When only 2 opinions are in the mix, more can get done!

We made it over to HS for the extra magic AM, and we were pleased by the light crowds. Our last few trips have either been near July 4 or on Spring Break, so the crowd relief was welcome. The main highlight was Star Tours, which has certainly intensified and was a nice improvement to a ride that we already loved anyway. Following that, it was a quick bus over to the Magic Kingdom (actually, the TTC).

The parks are tricked out for the Christmas season, with a large tree at the entrance of HS, many decorations and giant nutcrackers at Main Street, and holiday music included in the mixes around the parks. Every gift shop (including the resorts) has a Christmas section, and I saw on Hannukah section in Mouse Gear over in Epcot. The Osborne Family Lights look to be fully up. We're a little bummed because it's first night is reported to be Tuesday, and we fly home that afternoon.

After an afternoon nap, we hit the club lounge happy hour (featuring espresso BBQ chicken skewers and venision meatballs in a curry sauce), and then grabbed the bus over to Epcot and hit the Food and Wine Pavilion. It was mostly empty, as it was already after 8pm and Party for the Senses had already started. Still, we did ou research and got our gift card for tomorrow's feasting. (By the way, both my wife and I really enjoyed Beverly. It was refreshing . . . )

A monorail over to the Poly for a couple drinks at the Tambu Lounge was in order. We ordered crispy breads and dips along with the crab cake appetizer. I can't recommend the crab cakes highly enough! I had planned to get sushi, but I was really pleased with the meaty medallions of crab!

Then it was MK time . . . thanks to some light rain showers, I'd say that the number of people in the park was at around 2,000 or less after 1am! It was really a pleasure walking on so many rides and feeling like we had the park to ourselves! We finished the night after 2am (the first time it was 2am) with a hand-made chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich at the Main Street Bakery.

Best Extra Magic attraction for us was the Haunted Mansion. It's remarkable how many more details you can see in the building when it has been dark outside for so many hours. Really a must-do on EM Evenings.

Whew! Today, we're ready for F&W at the World Showcase since it feels like we didn't eat anything yesterday!