Welcome back. Congratulations to your husband. It is too bad he missed out of Boston by just a hair. I think it is awesome he ran in a marathon!
Thank you for giving a short overall of your vacation. IF you don't mind me asking can I ask what was so bad at Spoodles? We have an ADR there for my MIL as she really wants to try this place. Do you have any advice on where to sit or what to order?
Thank you Remmy
Well, our problem with Spoodles was NOT the food - it was getting seated!
So, anyway - we had an ADR for 7:25. We checked in a bit early (but behind a group of 24 that had a 7:30 ADR - the time isn't relevant. The group is). 7:25 came and went. 7:35 came and went. The place filled up after us, and then cleared out. My DH went and asked how much longer we'd be waiting. We were told we were next.
Then another group of 2 (that checked in after us, with a later reservation) got seated. So I went back up and the check-in chick (an older woman - not a semi-snotty college student, of which there were enough) completely flipped out on me, wanting to know why I was so demanding, telling me I had to wait my turn, etc.
I got so annoyed I nearly dragged my husband out at that point in time. He asked me to calm down, so I tried. Then, finally, it was our turn to get seated.
Remember that party of 24? It was 13 kids under the age of 15 and 11 adults. And they were put in a room in the back. This is kind of hard to describe, so I'll try and draw it out.
===== <--this is a table where some of them were seated.
= <-- this was a table of 4, where we were seated.
O <---this was a table where the rest of them were seated.
Yes, they seated us IN THE MIDDLE of the group of 24. They immediately started apologizing, but I told the party it was okay. They weren't doing A THING wrong. 13 kids is going to be noisy. So is 11 adults. And they were.
Obviously, then, our waitress was slow (and I was really in a foul mood). Eventually, she was given a back-up waiter, who took our drink orders, then vanished for a long time. He brought them back, took our food order, and I did ask for a manager at this point. When he tried to return with the bread (YUMMY) and dip (SUPER DUPER YUMMY - my non-olive eating husband thought it was GREAT), the main waitress actually took it from him and gave it to the round table (their second helping).
Luckily, the manager came over promptly and moved us immediately (and the table kept apologizing and *I* apologized, saying kids are kids and no one was doing anything worth apologizing for!). We were moved to a booth and while it's a loud restaurant (open kitchen, for example), it was SO much quieter. Our new waiter was fabulous, though he knew we were disgruntled when he got us. Turns out, he grew up a few towns away from where we live! Our food was actually really tasty, delivered promptly, our drinks were good ... and the manager comped the drinks. The manager did a good job to resolve what had been a bad situation!
Anyway, I got the shrimp & lemon linguine, which was tasty. My DH got the pork... tenderloin? Wood fired pork, I think. I had some of his and it was WAY better than mine. It was like eating an all-day smoked piece of pork. DH even ate all his vegetables (including dark leafy greens). For dessert, we each had chocolate cherry semi-freddo, which was layers of mousse with cherry sauce and cherries in brandy (potent!).
So, yeah. The menu on allearsnet.com has been updated very recently and I think it's very different than when we selected it. It doesn't have a lot of options I would consider (i don't always like pork, and on and on) now, but it ended up being a nice meal to end our trip!
Congrats on the time! And I am sorry Rose & Crown didn't work out for you--it's one of our favorite places to go!!!
It's just one of those places where we get consistently bad service. My drink was delivered just before dessert. Despite being placed before the meal order was taken!
Well, we're home....and I am SO SAD!!
When I woke up this morning, right before I opened my eyes, I thought I was still at Disney...........
I know I'll get over this......and I can relive it all through scrapbooking, right??
We had a great time, except for dh becoming VERY ill on our last night....in fact, he is still there! He went to the clinic and the dr. said he could not fly home with us yesterday. The CMs at POR were very nice & helpful & booked us an extra night so he could stay (actually 2 nights, "just in case").
(snip)
Day 4 ~ AK ~ our only rainy day. We rode KRR before it started raining, so we were almost dry again...and then it rained. 
We all rode EE.......3 of us loved it.....dd10 did NOT!
We ALL loved the Festival of the Lion King! We left earlier than we'd planned so we could get into some dry clothes before dinner, so we missed a couple of things I'd wanted to do.....mainly the Nemo show. :-( We ate at 1900 Park Fare for dinner ~ the stepsisters were very funny & Druisella made dh dance with her. If I can figure out how to post that on YouTube, I'll let you know. 
So there it is! I can't WAIT to go back!!!!
Aw, man. We would have possibly run in to one another at AK! But we changed our plans to avoid the rain (we opted to go to DHS on the rainy day and went to AK the next, when we'd planned to go to DHS!)
Yeah that list of depressed Snowbirds who just got back would be pretty long!
I can't believe you didn't see any LGMH's all week! I can't believe no one has reported meeting another Snowbird!! 
I texted with Kayte a bit! But that was about it. I didn't see a single LGMH the whole time, either. Though, at least one of the tour groups was decked out in LG almost the whole week!
I know!! I didn't know if I'd meet a Snowbird......but I thought I'd meet a DISer for sure! Oh, well......next time!!
...plus, we stayed in the same resort! *face plam* Alligator Bayou, building 28!
So, I am so happy they are here. Now the trip feels real!
.......
and pack more stuff!
I've always wanted to go there.
I hope your happy memories of both will help see you through the tough times. And the distraction of ALL those teens will surely keep you busy!
Hugs from all of us...
snykymom And Maggied 
