I awoke on Sunday December 2nd with a little smile...This would be the last day we would be in the parks with my in laws. Kay had been difficult - I kept asking Ralph, "What's up with your sister?" He really didn't know what her deal was. She rode virtually no rides and really didn't seem to be enjoying herself. Dee - well, I've already stated how that was going!
We decided to head back to MGM to catch the things we had missed on our first night in WDW. When we went through the connecting door into the in-law room, we learned that Kay didn't want to do that and that she was planning on going back to AK to see the animals again. Well, no problem...she could go off by herself! And that's exactly what happened. She headed off to AK with her big photography-equipment filled backpack and we stuck to our plan.
At MGM, we took in the Little Mermaid show and the Beauty and the Beast show (which we had missed on our last 2 trips). We took the Backlot Tour - this was the only ride the whole trip on which Bear started crying, he was not into the fire and the rushing water! And, we watched the Lights, Motors, Action show. Nemo loves this show - he talks about it all the time and uses Matchbox cars to "act it out" at home! We saw the Muppets 3-D show, another one that we had missed on recent trips....
I always feel like we walk all over this park and never see/do all the things that we want to. This is obviously confirmed by how many things we had missed on our previous trips!!!
Next, Ralph and I rode StarTours. This had been one of our favorite rides back in 2000 and we are huge Star Wars fans. I didn't ride in May 2006 because I was pregnant and in Feb 2007 I was in a conference while DH and Nemo went to MGM. I was really looking forward to riding this one! Oh, I was so disappointed!
First of all, it was so empty - no line at all- I guess everyone else knows what I was soon to realize...that Star Tours is horribly out of date and just, well, LAME nowadays!
We had lunch at the Studio Catering Co. They were pretty helpful with Bear's issues - he ended up sharing the rotisserie chicken meal with Dee. Nemo had...um, what was it?...oh, yes, mac-n-cheese
AGAIN. I had the chili cheese dog and Ralphie had the pulled pork sandwich. He and I have had these same things here in the past and everything was pretty much unchanged - good enough but not fantastic.
The next part of our day's plan was to tour some resorts to check out their holiday decorations...and maybe a little bit of a recon mission regarding where to stay on future trips.
We took the boat from MGM over to the boardwalk area. The boat was packed! There were people standing everywhere and there was not enough room for all the strollers. It was somewhat ridiculous. The CMs on the boat were not helpful - didn't give any tips on how to get all these folks and strollers aboard. And, they didn't stop anyone from getting on, maybe saying "we're full - next boat will be here in X minutes" would be a good idea in such a situation???
First we headed to YC/BC. We have stayed at YC before (for the conference I mentioned) and while it has a nice convention center, we really didn't like the atmosphere and decor. Here's some of the YC decorations:
These flowers were just gorgeous - this picture doesn't do them justice!
There was also a cool model train display - I don't seem to have any pictures of it though
Nemo and Bear loved watching the trains!
We walked over to BC - we really like the atmosphere and decor of BC better than YC. Just a little more light, airy, and casual.
Nemo with BC tree
BC gingerbread carousel with gingerbread Cinderella's Castle in front
Close up of gingerbread castle
Next, we headed around the boardwalk to check out the Boardwalk Inn. Conveniently, we were passing the ESPN Club, giving me a chance to pop in and check out the score of the Browns game. You see, I am a die-hard, long-time Browns fan. When I was in medical school, holed up in my apartment, studying for a big Pathology exam, the Browns played their final game before moving to Baltimore. I was watching in my apt just sobbing. I had told myself that when Cleveland got the Browns back, I would be living back in the Cleveland area and would get season tickets. It took a few years, but I did just that. I go to training camp in the summers and wouldn't dream of missing a home game. Our WDW plans have to work around those games! Well, I told Ralph and Dee that I would pop into the ESPN Club, check out the score, and catch up to them. Dee acted like this was just crazy for me to do and made a big deal about it. WTH lady? I didn't give much thought to her protests and went in, caught the score (they ended up losing to the Cardinals
) and was caught up with them before they made it to BWI.
We found BWI to be kind of confusing - it took us forever to find the lobby! But, maybe we just went in the wrong door or something.
Gingerbread display at the Boardwalk Inn
Next we caught a bus to DTD. We had dinner ADRs at Raglan Road and we wanted to do a bit of Christmans shopping. Oh boy, big mistake!!! DTD was absolutely nuts! I would imagine that it is probably nuts most evenings in the holiday season and super nuts on holiday season weekends. Well, it was Sunday evening and all the shops were packed! We didn't get too much shopping done on our way over to Raglan Road. We had arranged with Kay to meet her in front of the restaurant and told her that she had to be on time or the rest of us couldn't be seated. Well, she was late. Very late. Ralphie was
! The rest of us were hungry and we couldn't be seated. We were actually at the podium about to take her off of the ADR so we could be seated when she sauntered up. By this point, Ralph had pretty much had enough of his sister!
Raglan Road was NOT a good dining experience. First of all, the server was very difficult regarding Bear's allergies and basically told us that they would not prepare anything special for him, that we had to select something off of the menu but really couldn't tell me what was in certain things. I ended up asking for the cocktail sausages not dipped into the batter and the garden vegetables. Bear sucked these things down like there was no tomorrow! I then asked the server for some more of them for him. He said, "you are going to have to pay for them, you know". We were paying for him anyways since he was not eating off of our plates. What did this guy think we were thinking? That they would just be giving out food? The server asked me what I wanted with the sausages and I said "nothing" since he couldn't help me with what would be safe for Bear. When they brought out the second serving of sausages, they brought them with fries.
I hadn't asked for the fries and I freaked out! I mean, I had no idea how they were cooked - I'm sure they were fried in the oil in which they fry their battered fish and the batter probably has eggs and milk in it and he can't have fish!!! Furious, I sent them back. I strongly suspect that they just dumped the fries off the plate and sent the sausages back to the table. He ate these up too and was fine, but I was totally freaked by the experience.
Ralph had the drunk chicken, Paddy's Pork, and the Dunbrody Kiss - he was not impressed by anything.
Kay had the Seared Beef Salad, Paddy's Pork, and the Dunbrody Kiss - she did not like the Pork although thought the salad and dessert were good.
Dee had the Drunk Chicken, Shepherd's Pie, and the bread pudding - she liked the dessert but didn't really care for anything else.
Nemo had the chicken strips and vanilla ice cream (we couldn't let him eat mac-n-cheese at EVERY meal!)
I had the Seared Beef Salad, the It's Not Bleeding Chowder, and the trio of mousses - the salad was quite good, but the chowder...not so much. The trio of mousses was a bit odd - 2 had very strange textures, not light and fluffy but sort of pudding-like and grainy, which I really did not like.
Overall, this dining experience was a bust. We thought the server was a jerk and the service was poor. We didn't really enjoy the food and were pretty upset with the whole food allergy thing. After all of the great experiences we had had with this, this was like getting a bucket of cold water thrown in your face!
When we left Raglan Road, we thought that we would try to do some more shopping. Wow - the stores were even more crowded at night. We went into the World of Disney and not only is that place overwhelming because it is so large, but it was wall-to-wall people. A total nightmare!!! We waded through and purchased a few things, but actually tried to get out of there as quickly as possible. We headed right for the bus stop after that and got the heck out of DTD! It was back to our rooms at CSR so that Dee and Kay could pack up for their morning departure
so I sat at a lovely table outside in the sunshine and enjoyed an absolutely delicious chicken wrap with yummy couscous and lentil salads.
GG has long been a favorite of mine, also thanks to the calm atmosphere. But I don't get teh whole serving plate deal. What was wrong with the way they did it in the past? 
!!!
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Oh well....next time!! I love your pictures of them all, by the way! 
The pasta was mush, the sauce was gross, and t had huge slices of zucchini and squash and other huge vegetables that were not even cooked and so were hard as rocks. We hardly ate any of this. We got a few cookies for dessert and headed out. We decided to walk around the CSR lake and check out the other areas of the resort, but it was pretty dark so we didn't really get a good view of the other 2 areas. We headed back to our room in Cabanas and got busy packing up for our departure the next day.
Hollywood and Vine - this mousse was just so delicious, little chocolate pieces in it, I could have eaten the entire bowl off of the buffet !!!
