It's a Jolly Holiday with Katiebell and Brrt!

[Katiebell]

We just got back from the world, September 19-26. We had a fabulous time, in spite of the heat, humidity, love bugs, and free dining crowds This is my first trip report, so please, for your safety...keep your hands, arms, feet and legs inside the vehicle at all times...take small children by the hand...por favor, mantenganse allejado de las puertas...ok, here we go!

Cast of Characters:

Katiebell: That's me I have Tink's attitude, Alice's sense of wonder (and sometimes confusion), and Mary Poppins' trip planning style -- "Come along, now, spit spot!"

Brrt: my DH, beloved technogeek, keeper of the cameras, laptop, battery charger, various cords and power supplies, and he usually has cash in his wallet for grown up drinks and tips. Gotta have Brrt along if you are going on a Jolly Holiday... He's a little bit Bert, a little bit Experiment 626, and a little bit Captain Jack Sparrow -- "But why is the rum gone?"

We left Sacramento at 12:30 AM on Friday the 19th, crossing the country and three time zones to get to WDW. The flight was...grueling. We barely slept, but we were so excited that it was ok...

After a short layover at some inhuman hour in Houston (and bleary-eyed slurping of coffee), we landed, exhausted, in Orlando. But you know...you get to Disney, and you get your second wind...

We made our way to the ME bus stop and were magically whisked off to WDW!

Next: POFQ -- Yes, It Was All It Was Cracked Up To Be

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

YAY ~ Katie's got a trip report!!!

 

[Diamondintheruff]

I'm signing on for the ride and I love sitting in the front row!

 

[JoBird]

woo hoo, I'm in!!!




Jo

 

[NewCrew42]

Can't wait!

 

[Katiebell]

May 2007 we stayed at the Pop, but this time we wanted to try a moderate. I asked Brrt, and without really knowing anything about the resorts, he immediately said, "POFQ, that's the one." I was happy with his choice, since I'd been thinking about FQ, and it was recommended highly by JoBird, a fellow Mayer. We live in CA, and DL is like our home away from home. As much as we enjoy MK at WDW, and Liberty Square is cool, it's just not the New Orleans Square we know and love so well. That's just about our favorite hang out spot at DL, and we really miss it at WDW. So we thought that POFQ would give us the New Orleans feel, and it definitely did.

In the main lobby, there are musical notes that run the length of the check in desk -- the opening notes to "When The Saints Go Marchin' In".

For the atmosphere, think: jazz, Mardi Gras, lots of green, gold, and purple. The food court is the Sassagoula Float Factory (decorated with elements of a Mardi Gras parade).

The grounds had very pretty landscaping with lots of fountains. There is a cool pool with King Triton riding a Sea Serpent slide:

No king bed available, so we had to make do with 2 doubles (ah well, can't have EVERYTHING we want ). And the room was in building 7 -- it's a small resort, but when your feet hurt and you are wiped out at the end of the day, that extra bit of walking does make a difference. Next time, I'll request building 4 or 5, near the food court, laundry, pool, and bus stop. Our room really was lovely, decorated in blues and yellows. Elegant, but comfy and relaxing.

We stopped in the food court to make sure our KTTW cards worked, and got an order of beignets to share, then headed off on the bus to Epcot...

Next: Off to Epcot -- We Have Dinner Reservations in France

 

[NewCrew42]

Yippie! Epcot!


Can't wait for more!

 

[Katiebell]

We made it to Epcot, and got a quick ride on Mission:Space. Now...Brrt loves the orange side, and I've only done green. I said, ok, I'll give orange a try. Oh. My. Goodness. I don't like rides that require me to do Lamaze breathing to avoid tossing my cookies. Orange -- been there, done that, no thanks. I don't do TOT anymore either. Two times was quite enough for me, thank you very much. But I still like the green side

I had an inspiration and got one of those Kidcot Passports. My 17 year old son loves languages, and is taking third year German and has gone to the Japanese club after school. So I made it my mission to get it signed for him in every country at Epcot.

Next stop, Mexico. This was one of the things we missed last trip -- Brrt got really sick about two-thirds of the way through our last WDW vacation, and we missed a lot of things we had planned. The good news is, we got to do almost every one of those things this time around The Mexico pavillion was a really neat surprise -- from the outside, I wasn't expecting the inside to look like a Mexican marketplace at night. It was beautiful! We rode on El Rio de Tiempo (which I'd been warned should be renamed "El Wasto de Timo" ) but it was actually really cute. And the boat ride past the volcano and pyramid made the whole ride worth it.

Next, we shared a CS lunch and a school bread at Kringla Bakery in Norway, and got a couple of Carlsbergs. The little birds there flew right up to Brrt and were eating crumbs out of his hand. I felt like I should be Snow White, singing to all the little woodland creatures to come help me clean up the dwarves' pigsty of a cottage:

(BTW, any pics taken with my camera are coming out really small -- it's a lower quality camera than the Sony Cybershot Brrt used for most of the trip, and if I try to make them bigger they get really fuzzy and pixelated so I'll try to mostly post pics taken with the Cybershot).

We rode Maelstrom (it was closed for refurb last May), and got the passport signed in Mexico and Norway.

In China, we stopped to catch the acrobat show -- amazing stuff! The China pavillion is really beautiful -- we couldn't believe the detail of the ceiling inside:

By this time, however, we were running out of steam. Except for dozing briefly on the plane, we'd pretty much been up since 5 am Thursday We staggered through Germany and Italy, but the heat, humidity, and lack of sleep caught up with us, so we figured we'd come back another day (which we did). We muddled our way past Japan, America, and Morocco, and somehow found France. Maybe a Grey Goose slushie might revive us?

Ohhhhhhh yeahhhhhhhhh....slushie is gooooooood......

And we signed in for our dinner reservation at Chefs de France.

Next up: Maybe The Rude Waiter is Part of the "Authentic Atmosphere"?

 

[Katiebell]

Oh, and welcome to the trip report, everybody! I'm disappointed that the pics from my camera are coming out so tiny, because I really did get some great shots, but I'll post them if they are important to the story and you can actually SEE anything without a magnifying glass And Brrt is a great photographer, too, and he was snapping away the same time I was, so I'm sure there will be a lot of good pics either way

 

[PrincessBetsy]

I'm in! I can't wait to hear more! I'm excited for your review of Chefs de France. I've been thinking of dining there for my next WDW trip.

 

[JoBird]

I was mentioned in the TR!!!!!!!!

wonderful so far-- the pic size isn't bad... Just happy to be rreading it!

Jo

 

[Katiebell]

Hi PrincessBetsy, nice to meet you

Heck yeah, you were mentioned, Jo -- had to give you props, because POFQ is beautiful! I see why you love it so much.

And the good news is, once I started playing with the camera settings, it seems like some of my pics are more reasonably sized, so you should be able to see at least some of them better...

 

[Katiebell]

So, tired, hot, and hungry, we were seated at Chefs de France. The restaurant is pretty inside, lots of little touches to make you think of France:

The good side -- the food was tasty. Brrt ordered the duck (a new adventure for him), and I had the beef tenderloin, we both ordered the onion soup, and he ordered a rhubarb dessert, I ordered the chocolate tart.

The down side...unfortunately, was the service. I know that waiting tables is a very hard job, tiring and demanding, so I always try to have empathy for servers, especially if the restaurant is super busy. And our waiter wasn't young, he was an older gentleman and walked like his feet probably were hurting, so we tried very hard to be patient. But he was surly, cranky, dismissive, barely spoke to us, and pretty much ignored us for most of our meal. We ordered soup, he brought one bowl and plunked it down, walking away so fast it took a few minutes to flag him down to explain we each ordered a bowl. "Oh, I thought you wanted to share," was all he said and walked away again, no apology, no, "Oh, my mistake". Finally came back with another bowl and plunked it down again, hurrying off. We thought maybe he's just really tired and it's been a long day...until another couple was seated at the table next to us -- obviously frequent customers, the manager escorted them to the table and brought them a special appetizer. Our waiter stood at their table and chatted them up while we waited for our check. And waited. And waited. Then he finally took my KTTW card, and disappeared, and we waited, and waited, and waited some more. Poor Brrt was so tired (he got even less sleep than me) that I thought he might pass out face down on the table. After about 15 or 20 minutes, he started singing under his breath, "Some Day, My Check Will Come..." The manager came by our table and asked if something was wrong We said YES, the waiter disappeared with our card and we are exhausted and just want to get settled in at our hotel. He offered to buy us a drink and we said no, thanks, we just really, really want to go, we've been up for about 36 hours now... Shortly after that, the waiter reappeared at our table, mumbled something about a computer problem, and that was that.

So: pretty restaurant, good food, but probably won't make an ADR here again, although the poor service might have just been a fluke. But after the wonderful service we got at every other restaurant, we're in no rush to go back here.
Oh, and the coffee was awful

Next installment: Tomorrow is Another Day - Epcot After a Good Night's Sleep

 

[NewCrew42]

Excellent report KB!

Sounds like Chefs was yummy, but might could use a new waiter.

 

[JoBird]

Chefs--- we ate there LAST May- I can say we won't go back either. Our server was good, the food, eh.. not so much.
I had the Salmon drowning in olive oil--- Like Salmon/olive oil soup. It was gross. The FO soup was good. And good Lord the coffee- I do remember it being just awful. Blech!

Lovin the report !!! More more!

Jo

 

[Katiebell]

Chefs--- we ate there LAST May- I can say we won't go back either. Our server was good, the food, eh.. not so much.
I had the Salmon drowning in olive oil--- Like Salmon/olive oil soup. It was gross. The FO soup was good. And good Lord the coffee- I do remember it being just awful. Blech!

Lovin the report !!! More more!

Jo

Yep, the food was good, but quite honestly not as good as the other places we tried. Glad I didn't order the salmon

Excellent report KB!

Sounds like Chefs was yummy, but might could use a new waiter.

Basically if a server is prompt, pleasant, gets our order right, and checks once or twice during the meal to see if we need drink refills or anything, I'm pretty happy. And we usually get such nice, friendly servers at Disney, I guess we've just come to expect that. Maybe it was just a bad night for him, and I've heard there are a lot of great servers there, so I wouldn't discourage someone giving Chefs a try at least once.

 

[Katiebell]

OK, fast forward...back to FQ, a swim, a soak in the hot tub for our weary bones, and a good night's sleep...we were quite a bit perkier in the morning.

Off to Future World at Epcot! Grabbed a Fast Pass for Soarin', then while we waited rode the Living With the Land boat ride. The highlight, of course, was the Mickey Head-shaped pumpkin:

We got a quick bite at Sunshine Seasons, then rode Soarin' -- my all-time favorite ride I love it because all the scenes remind me why I love my state, California. And I've been to so many of those places -- Monterey, Napa, San Francisco, Malibu, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Disneyland -- on the ground, of course

Next we rode the Seas with Nemo, and checked out the cool exhibits, watched the manatee feeding and care. By then, it was almost noon, and time for lunch at Le Cellier.

Next: Oh Canada! The Best Steak Ever. Anywhere.

 

[JoBird]

What did you have at SunshineSeasons????

 

[PrincessBetsy]

Sounds like you had a terrible waiter at Chefs. At least the food was good. I'm so glad that you went to Le Cellier and I can't wait for your review! I am trying to decide between Chefs and Le Cellier for lunch at Epcot and I like to hear others experiences at both restaurants

 

[Katiebell]

What did you have at SunshineSeasons????

Nothing exciting this time We just realized we'd skipped breakfast and had to have a little something to tide us over until our lunch reservation at noon. We grabbed a couple of bananas, two bottled waters, and one pastry that we shared. We did have lunch there last trip and it was really, really tasty, especially for a CS meal -- I had salmon and I think Brrt had some kind of wrap sandwich, and I remember we both enjoyed them.

So...not too thrilling for breakfast, but I promise, Le Cellier was amazing.