Let's sleep late tomorrow, 'til like 8! (A March '19 Disneymoon TR updated 4/12)

[DLo]

Congrats! Following along. Looking forward to reading more about your adventures

 

[Lesley Wake]

Following! Love the matching ears and what a cute photo of Mickey and Minnie!

 

[Justplainchy]

The Tale of Kick-offs, Beetle Bites and Our New Favorite Restaurant
(Part III: Our New Favorite Restaurant)
​

Hello everyone and welcome back to the TR that took a weird hiatus last weekend but I'm home sick with a sinus infection so this is a lot more fun than blowing my nose for the five hundredth time.

When I left off Jo and I had just battled a beetle and had a delicious dinner at Morimoto's Asia (I'm still thinking about that duck, y'all). We wrapped up lunch and headed back over to World of Disney to try and find a small stuffed Stitch for Jo -- she usually bring a small stuffed thing to sleep with, but was pretty sure that she'd forgotten hers at home. But, of course, we hadn't quite adjusted to Disney sticker shock yet, and $30 for a Stitch was too much and we left without one. We did find a neat Captain Marvel pin (we loved that movie!!) but I ALMOST stole it -- we were just chatting and walking toward the exit and I realized "OH! I HAVE TO PAY FOR THIS!" and stopped dead in my tracks, to which a cast member said "I can take care of that for you" and I assumed he meant pay for it, but then we just sort of awkwardly followed him back all the way across the store to where the pins hang up and he took the pin from me and put it back. And then we had to wait for him to wander off to grab it again and run to the front and pay before he noticed. We're really smooth, guys.

We stopped by the photopass photo-shoot place and had some cute pictures made (except I look a little silly because I realized I'd spilled duck sauce on my dress and so I had to cover up with my shawl....ah well)

(This is my favorite one because 1. I love the haunted mansion and 2. all the others are taken from a weird under angle that makes it look like I have five chins)

By this point our four hours of sleep and a day of Disney excitement were catching up with us and we were dragging. We decided to head back to our hotel for a nap before our 9:05 dinner reservation. The bus was easy to find and this began our transportation luck of the trip. Almost every single time we were waiting for a bus, one arrived within five minutes. It was magical. I was used to when we stayed at CBR last trip and we waited 15, 20 or once, memorably (on NYE) 53 minutes for a bus.

We got to the room and I think quite literally fell into the bed and conked out for two hours.

When we woke up, Jo made a little panicked face and headed for the facilities. Cue my panic. Oh no -- we'd made it to Disney without broken ankles and without the flu (it was going around my school before we left) only to get food poisoning the first day! Turned out the probiotics she'd started taking a week before can really upset your stomach and make things unpleasant. Thankfully it passed quickly and she was a trooper and rallied for dinner. I know for a fact she wasn't feeling well when we left the hotel, but I'm pretty sure she didn't want to disappoint me. Wives are good like that.

We did scrap the "take the bus to epcot and walk through it to the boardwalk" plan though, and instead just caught a lyft. Nice driver, easy peasy pick up and drop off. This was our first time at the Boardwalk and I have to say that I just fell in love. It was fantastic!

Cool breeze, gorgeous hotels and stalls and the "carnival" feel I love the most. There was an acrobat just starting his set as we got there so we watched him stand on tall things and I was suitably impressed. We wandered the gift store for a while and did some pin trading and then it was time to check in for our dinner. Flying fish is absolutely gorgeous, y'all. Just; so stunning.

These are the blown glass sculptures through the lobby and into the dining room. Apparently we didn't take any pictures of the place settings or the adorable silverware (it had fish scales!) but trust me: it's incredibly romantic and also feels really upscale. Our waiter's name was Younes and he was hands down the best server we had all week. He had amazing recommendations the whole dinner!

For appetizers, Jo had the pork belly: this was a treat for her because I don't like pork at all really and I'm the cook at home so we never have it.

She said it was amazing, and I have to agree - I actually had a bite and it was actually very nice! Pork belly is one of those things that can be good or awful based on how it's cooked and this was amazing.

I had the crab croquette - which was a fancy crab cake, also also delicious!

It was more crab than filling and just salty and sweet and perfect. Yum. Jo doesn't like crab so we didn't share much of this, which was fine by meeee.

For entrees we had the steak with sweet onion risotto (Jo) and I had the seared sea-bass on Younes' recommendation and Jo's pointing out that I could have salmon anywhere. Y'ALL. I have a new favorite fish.

These were just perfect. Like, every bite was to die for! They weren't this shiny in real life; sorry about the lighting.

For dessert we had the Florida Sunrise (Jo) and I had the Cocoa Breach -- it was a hazelnut cake that they poured chocolate sauce on and it melted in front of you.

These were both absolutely amazing. Jo's was light and fruity. Mine was rich and decadent -- but my stomach wasn't yet ready for DxDP levels of food so I had to take half of mine back to the hotel with hopes I would eat it later (spoiler alert: I don't. My one big regret).

Stuffed, content and still riding high on our honeymoon, we thanked Younes profusely, sent off a Cast Compliment because he was a rockstar, paid our tip and then headed home. We grabbed another uneventful lyft and hit the bed and just absolutely conked out. All in all, a perfectly wonderful first day!

Up next time: Our first actual park day: Hollywood Studios!! The monsoon! SDD for the first time! Brown Derby!
Thank you guys for waiting and following along!! ​

 

[Justplainchy]

Congrats! Following along. Looking forward to reading more about your adventures

Thank you!! Glad to have you along for the journey!

Following! Love the matching ears and what a cute photo of Mickey and Minnie!

Welcome! And isn't it?? It was the photopass photographer's idea too! We love it!!

 

[Cloe Colton]

I'm here! I can't wait to hear all about your trip!!

Seems like a great first day! I am so excited to try Flying Fish in September. Looks delish!

 

[Justplainchy]

Saturday 3/16: Maybe I like Roller Coasters?, How Many Times Can You Do Star Tours Without Throwing Up? And Exactly What Counts as a Monsoon? ​

Welcome back everyone to another thrilling saga of our disneymoon trip report! We finally make it to a park! We ride rides! We get to test our ponchos! We eat some more!

We are a rope drop couple, so our alarms went off nice and early at 7:00 and I popped up to make us coffee -- well, chai lattes 'cause we knew CSR had a keurig and Jo isn't a huge fan of coffee. So we got chai things -- this is important later in the week when we REALLY needed more caffeine in the morning, but we were still spry this morning! We got dressed, donned our honeymoon ears and wandered to our bus-stop. The bus gods were shining on us this morning and we walked up right as a HS bus pulled up. We jumped on and got seats! Amazing!!

Pretty soon we were at HS and walking the bus half mile. Dang, people weren't kidding. After we'd gotten in roughly 40,000 steps before reaching the gate (I kid, I kid), we arrived, went through security and walked through the tapstile easy peasy. I was expecting the mad crush of people inside because I'd been reading the horror stories of HS rope drop, but since we weren't headed to TSL, we hooked a left and headed toward Echo lake. Jo's favorite ride here is Star Tours and we figured this would be a good way to ride it with pretty low crowds! We were held by a cast member until they did the voice over announcement..I have to admit this is part of why I love rope drop. I got chills! Man, I love Disney.

At 8:55 they started walking us to attractions. We got on the first ride with a full ship, and had a blast. Got out, looped around and got back in line. Walk-on again and this time our ship was maybe half-full and they told us to pick any row. Jo got to be the spy!! That was awesome. I called her my rebel spy the rest of the day.


This was a crazy thing -- my name from Austin as "unverified". I know they can do it when you tap in for a FP butttt we weren't using FP yet. Basically Disney knows where you are at all times and it's a little creepy but also cool!

From Star Tours we headed over to TSL to see what the wait was on Midway Mania. It was already at 45 minutes (likely inflated), but we decided eh, let's see what the wait is for Jessie and Woody! We missed them last time. The cast member told us it would be about 45 minutes, but Jo pointed out it likely wouldn't get shorter so we hopped in. While we were waiting, we realized how dang hungry we were and I slipped out of line to get breakfast while Jo waited. I know, I know. We were those people. Was it better because Jessie and Woody went on a break and the line didn't switch back and forth so I didn't push past anyone? Probably not, but my shame of being a bad guest was overwhelmed by how delicious the turkey egg and cheddar sandwich I got from Woody's lunchbox was. We also got a raspberry tart and ate them both in line while we waited. No pictures, because we inhaled them. Once we were done, we felt a lot more like human beings. We also had a good spot to see the army men march by.


Jessie and Woody came back and the line started moving again. Annndd then they went on break when we were the next group. Sigh. But then! There they were!! They signed our copy of The Little Prince (it was a part of our wedding, and will eventually be an art project with all the signatures we got) and we grabbed a picture.


You can't see it, but we also had our shoes out like they were boots, but in the picture that shows it, Jo's eyes are closed. It's her curse.

By this point, TMM was up to 75, so we skipped that and headed toward the front of the park to try and catch the big pin board we had only heard rumors of on our last two trips. We were in luck! It was there!! We traded for some really good pins, and then realized it was time for our Star Tours FP. We wandered back that way and rode for the third time that day: neither of us was the spy and it was a repeat of one we'd done on our last trip. Still fun though!

We wanted to go do the muppets since they're near one another, but it was down so we wandered back toward the front for some Starbucks because dang, we were dragging at this point. On our way there, we ran into Chip and Dale! These guys have become some of favorites due to my wife's Swedish heritage where they're called Piff och Puff. In Sweden, almost everyone watches "Donald Duck" (Jiminy Cricket's Christmas Special) dubbed in Swedish, and since we've gotten married I watch it every year too! And the scene with Chip and Dale in the tree with Pluto makes me laugh every time and has given these two a real special spot in my heart.

They are also a fantastic character meet!

Dale stole Jo and had her marry him instead. It was hysterical!

From there we continued to the Starbucks (it's the Trolley Car, y'all--we walked past it like four times), got some drinks (no matter what size and what drink, it's a snack credit! what!), and felt refueled. The First Order had started their marches and I snapped a couple pictures:



Inspired by Star Wars, we headed over to the character meet and greets, and waited for Chewie (about 15 minutes). He's amazing as always, and liked my shirt:



And from there we headed over to Kylo Ren. We'd never done this meet before (we're not his biggest fans), but we wanted to go toe-to-toe with him in our rebel wear. It was actually a lot of fun. For some reason, I didn't expect he would talk: he asked if we believed that the resistance would save us. We said we did. He told us we were foolish. We asked how his dad was doing:
He took it really well (hah!) and then told us that name meant nothing to him. We posed for a picture and mostly behaved ourselves. After Kylo, we headed over to my favorite: BB-8! He beeped loudly about Jo's skirt, and I gave him a hug which was awesome and then I got almost in trouble for nearly touching his antenna (sorry BB-8!)

He's so cute and wonderful. #hearteyes

From the meets we headed out through launch bay, ran into a cast member with mystery pins who would do trivia for them. We discovered we are really BAD at Disney Trivia, but it's a fun way to interact with cast members! He asked us for four characters in Star Wars whose actors also did other voice work in animated films. We came up with three: James Earl Jones (Vader and Mufasa), Alan Tudyk (K-2SO and Hei Hei among others), and Samuel L. Jackson (Mace Windu and Frozone), and then we were totally stumped. Finally we gave up and he gave us a list of the others--none of which I can remember now.

We also spent some time looking at an amazing Leia picture on canvas but didn't buy it because $125 (or $100 with our passholder discount) was a lot for a piece of art, even a cool one on canvas (remember this, it'll be important later).

From there we wandered out to realize Voyage of the Little Mermaid was just about to start! We jumped in line and watched the show: I forgot how much I like this one! I may have had a little snooze though, because it was cool and dark and nice. Getting out of there it was now time for our RnR FP and we were ready to make the long trek to the other end of the park.

And that brings us to the end of this portion of the trip report! Join me next for HS: continued - the monsoon! I face my roller coaster fears for SDD! We spot SW:GE and are excited! We're the best aunts ever! Dinner at Brown Derby! Fantasmic!

As always, thanks for reading along!

 

[Justplainchy]

I'm here! I can't wait to hear all about your trip!!

Seems like a great first day! I am so excited to try Flying Fish in September. Looks delish!

You are going to love it! Hands down the best meal we had all trip by a long shot. Glad to have you following along!

 

[Lesley Wake]

We did find a neat Captain Marvel pin (we loved that movie!!) but I ALMOST stole it -- we were just chatting and walking toward the exit and I realized "OH! I HAVE TO PAY FOR THIS!" and stopped dead in my tracks, to which a cast member said "I can take care of that for you" and I assumed he meant pay for it, but then we just sort of awkwardly followed him back all the way across the store to where the pins hang up and he took the pin from me and put it back. And then we had to wait for him to wander off to grab it again and run to the front and pay before he noticed. We're really smooth, guys.

OMG - so awkward! And totally sounds like something I would have done!

 

[Justplainchy]

OMG - so awkward! And totally sounds like something I would have done!

It really was!!! And the worst part was we didn't get the pin from the pin places -- they were in a bowl by the Captain Marvel stuff, so he couldn't find where to put it and we didn't know what to say!

 

[cheshiregoofy22]

Love those Star Wars meet and greets - especially nose to nose with Kyle Ren! And that dinner at Flying Fish! Wowie! Dessert too pretty to eat! I use too many exclamation points. Apologies. Loving your report! (Snuck in another one)

 

[Justplainchy]

Saturday 3/16: Maybe I like Roller Coasters?, How Many Times Can You Do Star Tours Without Throwing Up? And Exactly What Counts as a Monsoon?
Part II!
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So when we'd left off, Jo and I were headed over to RnR. I love this coaster. Sometimes I forget that I love this coaster and I get really nervous right before we ride it, but I really do love it. It's super intense WITHOUT a huge drop, which is exactly my ticket!

We wandered down Sunset, taking our time and looking at stuff, and then stopped at the little pin kiosk outside RnR to trade with the cast member there. We got to talking about how it was our honeymoon and then she went back to work and we kept browsing -- except when we were just about to leave, she said "guys! wait! It's a phone call for you!" I don't know how she did it (I assume there's a number they call? Idk), but when she handed the phone to us, it was Mickey talking about how important love was and how excited he was that we were celebrating our honeymoon with them, and about how he and Minnie made it work all these years! It was a little hard to hear because we were trying to share the headset, but it was such a sweet surprise!

Elated, we headed to RnR after thanking the girl profusely which she replied by going "I just don't know how he knew you were right here!" Disney magic . We rode RnR, toward the front (hooray, much less banging around of your head)

I'm having a great time, I promise. Universally Jo looks better in ride photos than me.

Despite our previous Starbucks, we were starting to drag. We decided then the best thing to do was to go nap through Frozen Ever After Sing Along -- except then we forgot to nap because our historians were so funny we just ended up laughing our heads off the entire time. Oops. Also I was really worried that since we were there during a busy time we wouldn't end up with good seats showing up 10 minutes before a show and not having a FP, but that theater is huge and we ended up with really good seats.

From there we checked and Muppets was up again! This is one of my favorites -- we walked right in and then I accidentally slept through the whole thing. Did I mention I needed a nap?

After unplanned afternoon constitutional, it was time for our really early dinner reservation (4:25). We started walking toward Brown Derby and I spotted these beauties:

Man, if we'd had any way to manage a BB-8 Balloon and Jo wasn't afraid of balloons in general, I would have bought one of these in a heartbeat! I also took a moment to express how I feel about storm troopers:

#Rebelalliance all the way, y'all.

Anywayyyy... dinner was a fantasmic package, and I had fond memories of the brown derby from the time I'd gone almost six years ago with my family, but the reviews I'd read since then weren't great and I was a little nervous!

If nothing else, Brown Derby at 4:30 is a calm, classy respite from the crowds and noise of the park!

We ordered apps (Crab "puff" for me and Ahi Tuna for Jo) and I got two drinks: the grapefruit cocktail -- we didn't get a picture but it was AMAZING, and this fantastic thing:

I'm still such a sucker for a thing that lights up! It was also pretty tasty - very fruity. Also it matched my shirt, so....


Delicious crab part II! The mustard sauce added a really nice counterpoint to the cold crab and then the puff had warm crab inside. Yum. Jo loved her Ahi Tuna. I didn't try any of it, but I'm not really a tuna fan. She said it was delicious.

Entrees were: Black grouper and lobster for me and the duck for Jo.

This was fantastic! The lobster was a bit overcooked (the curse of lobster being cooked in anything stew-like), but edible, and the scallops and fish were phenomenal. Jo's duck was flavorful and moist without being too fatty. Totally different from the Morimoto's duck, but still delicious. I didn't take a picture of Jo's because #bestTRever.

Dessert was a sampler of the grapefruit cake (yum) and the banana toffee cake (my favorite!!). We actually ended up switching our favorites so I had two of the banana toffee cake and she had two of the grapefruit.

I could have eaten that banana toffee cake ALL DAY.

After dinner our FP window for Slinky Dog had opened. I was a little nervous about this one because I am always nervous about roller coasters and it does seem like it has a pretty significant drop (I said this and Jo literally laughed at me and said "no. It appears to have a drop. There is nothing significant about it.") but the Dis had promised me that it was easier than space mountain and more on par with BTMRR - which is my favorite. I made Jo go on the left side because of reports that that side was scarier. She obliged because she loves me. FP line went really quick and then we were off!

This. Ride. Is. Awesome. I loved it. I wanted to go again! The wait was 120 minutes so we said no to that, but seriously, this is a super fun rollercoaster - especially if you're a chicken like me. Also! You get really cool views of SW:GE from the top! Wooo! We're so excited about this new land.

I've hit the picture limit (again), so I'll wrap this day up in Part III: Seriously, I'll tell you about that monsoon, Edna and more! Thanks for reading!!

 

[Justplainchy]

Saturday 3/16: Maybe I like Roller Coasters?, How Many Times Can You Do Star Tours Without Throwing Up? And Exactly What Counts as a Monsoon?
Part III
​

After SDD we booked it over to the Incredibles area for Edna Mode. Well, booked it, or stopped for a Toy Story photo op, either way.

We snuck in right under the wire: she closed at 6:30 and we got there at 6:27. We met a really nice family in front of us (one of my favorite things about Disney) and chatted with them for a bit. We ended up trading pins because she had one of the Mauis we were looking for and she wanted one of my traders! Finally we were in her presence: The myth, the legend! Ednaaaaaaa!


She was awesome, but Jo's eyes are either closed or half closed in all these pictures. I like this one because it seems like she's doing it on purpose for coolness factor.

From Edna we headed over to Animation courtyard on a good Aunt hunt. Our Niece loves Sofia the first and she meets in the Disney Jr. area. Of course, we felt a LOT self-conscious being in the line with zero kids, but thankfully we told her she was our niece's favorite and she posed with us like it wasn't awkward at all. Our niece was very excited. #bestaunts.



We also met Pluto, which was fun and we were deciding what we were going to next when all of a sudden...THE SKIES OPENED.

Now, I am used to a little Florida rain. I grew up going in the summer when there is a storm every day but this was not a tame little storm of whatever kind. THIS WAS A STORM. It was pouring rain, sheets and sheets of it. We scrambled to put our ponchos on and protect our backpack and get our phones away. We tried to use our umbrella first, which resulted in it being blown the wrong way a few times and breaking. #winners. We finally got ponchos on and decided to head toward Star Tours because it usually has a low wait and it's inside. We passed a ton of people huddled under buildings, but thankfully the ponchos kept the top half of us dry. My shoes were a different story....

We got to star tours and it was about a ten minute wait. Had to get out of the ponchos to ride, but otherwise it was fine. Got off, waded through the crowd hiding in the gift shop. Ponchos on, walked the twenty steps to the entrance and rode again. Wait was only 5 minutes this time. Ponchos off, ride the ride, and repeat! We ended up riding three times in a row: mostly in the back row (we're short so it's the most fun), before we decided that we were getting a little queasy. Grand total of Star Tours rides in one day: 6. Guys, we're amazing at Disney World

After round three and a concern for our stomachs, we headed over to Fantasmic. The rain was no longer a monsoon, but more a light spritzing. I stopped on the way to grab this neat picture of my favorite dinosaur at Disney!

I love seeing her lit up at night. I've actually never had ice cream here. Maybe this summer....

Guess what! We definitely didn't need our dining passes to get a good spot. The rain had cleared almost everyone out so we had a row with plenty of room around us and I was actually able to stretch out and elevate my ankle a bit. I think I mentioned it (I know I did in my PTR), but I'd broken it right before our planned Disney trip in June of last year, and it was aching from the walking and the weather change (most. useless. superpower.)

It was still raining.

But hey! We were still at Disney World! It'd been a great day! And we were prepared with our ponchos! And we were about to see our favorite nighttime show!


You can see around us how empty it was at Fantasmic. It rained for about 15 minutes before the show started, but then it tapered off and we had fifteen minutes of watching the most hilarious cast member dance and perform to the various Radio Disney versions of the songs. I wish I could have read her nametag (it was under her poncho) because man, she deserved 50 cast compliments for a great attitude despite the cold and wet and a LOT of grumpy people because it was cold and wet.

The only difference in the show due to the rain was that the snake didn't move. I get it - probably too slippery and too dark for them to risk it on that mountain, and I was actually surprised there wasn't less removed! I bet if it had been actually still raining they would have changed a few more things. As it was! I still love this show. I've seen it get some hate on the Dis lately, but we just think it's amazing. We had thought we would be able to see Fantasmic and then star wars fireworks (we were able to when we went in December) but the timing was a little different I guess because as we were leaving Fantasmic, the fireworks started and by the time we made it to the front of the park they were nearly half over.

We made plans to leave AK early on Monday and come catch them then (famous last words).

We wandered out to the bus and got on one within 5 minutes of waiting. Score! Back to the hotel and Disney Floral had done an amazing job with the surprise I had orchestrated for Jo:

She had no idea, and really liked the sparkling grape juice (my one worry - she finds most American ones too sweet, but this one was really nice) and we had a nice relaxing evening with our feet up drinking our fake champagne.

Tune in for Part III: Our First Day at Magic Kingdom! Including: Brunch at the Top! The Omnibus! A dash from BoG to the contemporary! A ton more pictures presented ten at a time!

Oh! PS bonus picture:


I see you there, club 33. I think I need an award for resisting the urge to push this button. We can always dream, right??

Also PPS:

Found a picture of Jo's duck from BD. Better late than never and I couldn't figure where else to work this in. Whooppsss.

As always, thanks for reading along!

 

[Cloe Colton]

Sounds like a great day in Hollywood Studios! Brown Derby sounds delicious! I think I need to try to eat here at some point. That crab puff looked amazing!

Glad the rain didn't dampen your day! I don't think I realized that we were both in DHS that day! That rain was annoying. But we thought the same thing that it had cleared a lot of people out for our After Hours party!

 

[Justplainchy]

Sounds like a great day in Hollywood Studios! Brown Derby sounds delicious! I think I need to try to eat here at some point. That crab puff looked amazing!

Glad the rain didn't dampen your day! I don't think I realized that we were both in DHS that day! That rain was annoying. But we thought the same thing that it had cleared a lot of people out for our After Hours party!

Oh man! It would have been cool to meet up. That was my one regret from the trip: after we did AH at MK and DAK, I wished we'd signed up for HS too! I hope you guys had a great time.

 

[Cloe Colton]

Oh man! It would have been cool to meet up. That was my one regret from the trip: after we did AH at MK and DAK, I wished we'd signed up for HS too! I hope you guys had a great time.

We did! I would definitely recommend it!

 

[Justplainchy]

Sunday 3/17: Magic Kingdom We Are In You and Can we Make it from BoG to the Contemporary in 15 Minutes?
(Part I: Magic Kingdom Mornings and Brunch at the Top!)
​

Good morning everyone and happy Friday! It's been testing season here in Texas for public school teachers and I'm so excited to have two days off to not stare at kids who are testing. Woo!

But anyway, without further ado: Our first say at Magic Kingdom!

It was St. Patrick's day, but we both forgot to wear anything green. Oops. I slid by because the bow on my honeymoon ears was green, but I used it as an excuse to pinch Jo a couple of times through-out the day. A few people were out in full green garb and it was awesome! I didn't mention them in my last report, but there was a whole group at HS in the most dapper of green clothing and every time we saw them they seemed to have more people with them. I was so impressed! They looked amazing!!

We got up early today (again, it's late for us - we're usually up by 5:20-5:30 at home, so 7 o'clock is a luxury--though we usually go down about 9:30-10:30, not midnight!) to make it over to MK for rope drop. Originally we had planned to just start our day with our 10:15 reservation at California Grill, but then we realized that we've never actually rope dropped MK and so we headed over nice and early. Of course, I say we were there for RD, but we caught the bus right at 8:08. This was our second day of relying on the app for bus arrival times and it was really accurate for us. I was impressed!

We were at the park by 8:25, and breezed through security. We stopped by guest services to check the pin book but didn't find anything worth trading for. I think they used to update those at night or at least refresh with a few fun pins, but not this time. We saw a few of the mainstreet vehicles driving around and I've never seen them before, much less ridden on one. But our time was short and I almost gave up before Jo put down her foot and said dammit we were going to wait for one because I'd been talking about it for weeks. Of course, at almost exactly that time, the Omnibus showed up and we followed it to its stop. It's double-decker and we were the second pair on, so we headed upstairs for a great view of mainstreet!

Here is me being SO EXCITED and then both of us trying to get a picture of the whole omnibus and the castle and us in one shot. As you can tell, we're super successful.

There is no cooler way to get to Cinderella's castle first thing in the morning. It. Was. Awesome. We felt like celebrities. We waved to everyone along the way. It was magical. I highly recommend it!

Drop off was nice and easy and we got a great spot for the castle show - we weren't actually trying to hit any rides, so we figured now was a good time to watch it. We met a really nice solo traveler who asked us to take a picture and then returned the favor; giving us what became my favorite picture of the whole trip:

Guys, I'm totally in love. I'm going to get this one framed.

The castle show was really sweet. I'm really glad we saw it full on instead of out of the corner of our eye as we rope dropped something!

After the show we joined the throng headed to Fantasy Land with no real plan in mind. Our friends had sent us with their autograph book to try and find Belle's autograph because they'd missed her on their last trip. Since it was the trip they let us join them on with free accommodations, we figured we could hunt one signature. So we headed over to Enchanted Tales with Belle. I'd never done this before, but had heard great things. Neither of us was picked for the show, but our tiny beast was amazing! It was a sweet show, but also a time sink and more for kids. We got our picture with Belle (a cast member invited us up, which was great because otherwise I would have been too self-conscious to approach with all the kids) but she doesn't sign at this show, which I could have figured out from asking here but I didn't sooo--- I'm really glad we did this during some "bonus" time!

We thought about grabbing one more ride since it was still pretty early, but instead we found a little hidden photo area in castle couture and did a tiny photoshoot! It was a blast!

(sorry this photo is giant, but look! it's cute!)

At this point, it was time to head to brunch. I'm a big follower of disneytouristblog, and after reading their review for this dining experience I knew it was something I desperately wanted to do. We headed toward the castle past the carousel only to notice:

The stepsisters were riding! They complained the whole time, it was ridiculous and hilarious and just so Disney it put a huge smile on my face.

We took our time walking to the contemporary, getting a few odd looks from people just heading INTO the parks. I'm sure it's odd to see people leaving when the park hasn't even been open for 45 minutes. We checked in easily on the second floor and then waited for the elevator. A quick ride up and we were there! Wow. The view!!! It was absolutely spectacular.

We had about a 5 minute wait before they called our name and we spent it looking at the piles and piles of wine and soaking in the view. Pretty soon they were calling us and we grabbed our complimentary champagne with strawberry bobas and took our seats. Still such a neat view.

Space Mountain, I see you!

This brunch works by giving you an entree and allowing as many trips as you want to the buffet. If you're on the DxDP or DDP, you also get ANOTHER alcoholic beverage with the unlimited champagne. I ordered a blueberry lemondrop.

Yum.

Jo ordered POG juice, and we both got coffee. I am a glutton for beverages at a brunch. Seriously. If a beverage is include I will have my mimosa, my coffee, my water and my juice and that's a standard brunch. Add on a second free cocktail and I may have had more liquid than food.

We didn't take any pictures of the buffet -- probably because we were too busy eating it, but I wrote in my travel notes: "highlights: sushi, salami, deviled eggs, parfait (for jo), bacon quiche and rum baba". The sushi wasn't the best we'd ever had but was quite tasty, the salami was fantastic and paired with a lot of cheeses they offered, the deviled eggs had truffle and a bit of something spicy. Jo loves a good yogurt parfait (I can take or leave yogurt on a good day), the bacon cheese quiche was delicious and the rum baba could have been my own meal - I would have had fourteen of them if I hadn't already ordered an entree and after a round at the buffet was half full!

For entrees we ordered a lobster omelette (me) and vanilla bean french toast (jo).

Both of these were fantastic. The omelette had huge chunks of lobster (that I ended up picking out when I was halfway through because I was so full) and the french toast was expertly made, though heavy on the caramel.

Finally they brought us a plate of desserts:

Which we almost immediately had boxed up because we were both stuffed. We were also given some honeymoon pixie dust in the form of a champagne toast! It was really sweet and I couldn't let love booze go to waste so I finished those too. We were pretty sure someone was going to need to roll us home. This is the other meal on our trip that I would like to repeat if we come back to Disney over a Sunday. It was delicious, elegant and a nice break from hustle and bustle. Probably my second favorite meal we ate all week.

Right before we left our wonderful server let us know that if we saved our receipt we could come back in the evening and watch the fireworks from the viewing deck. Remember this, it will be important for part two of day three!

Stay tuned for: We actually spend time at Magic Kingdom, BoG for dinner, our (very) brief foray backstage at MK, and the fireworks cross-park sprint!

As always, thanks for reading along!!

 

[Cloe Colton]

We were in MK on St Pattys day too! Although we didn't show up until like 2 haha we are NOT early risers

I literally just posted on my PTR asking if anyone has done the CG brunch on the deluxe dining plan because I was wondering if you get a second drink with it! I should have just come here! This is good to know!! Do you know if you could have used the drink for a Bloody Mary or is that not allowed? lol

Glad you enjoyed your brunch! Looks like you got a great view!

 

[Justplainchy]

We were in MK on St Pattys day too! Although we didn't show up until like 2 haha we are NOT early risers

I literally just posted on my PTR asking if anyone has done the CG brunch on the deluxe dining plan because I was wondering if you get a second drink with it! I should have just come here! This is good to know!! Do you know if you could have used the drink for a Bloody Mary or is that not allowed? lol

Glad you enjoyed your brunch! Looks like you got a great view!

Not even going to lie, we were early risers at the beginning of the week, but we were dragging by the end! And it may be a YMMV situation but our server (Kenneth) told us straight out because we were on the DxDP we got an extra drink. He definitely mentioned the bloody mary and described it to me in depth. I almost felt guilty that I don't like them and went with the lemon drop (which was delicious!) so I definitely think they're included! I don't think there's a bad view in the house, to be honest Hope you guys get to go and you enjoy it as much as we did!!

 

[Lesley Wake]

Drop off was nice and easy and we got a great spot for the castle show - we weren't actually trying to hit any rides, so we figured now was a good time to watch it. We met a really nice solo traveler who asked us to take a picture and then returned the favor; giving us what became my favorite picture of the whole trip:

Guys, I'm totally in love. I'm going to get this one framed.

Awesome photo, especially taken by a random stranger!

Which we almost immediately had boxed up because we were both stuffed. We were also given some honeymoon pixie dust in the form of a champagne toast! It was really sweet and I couldn't let love booze go to waste so I finished those too. We were pretty sure someone was going to need to roll us home. This is the other meal on our trip that I would like to repeat if we come back to Disney over a Sunday. It was delicious, elegant and a nice break from hustle and bustle. Probably my second favorite meal we ate all week.

Good to hear you liked it! I'm headed there in 3 weeks and looking forward to the brunch

 

[Cloe Colton]

Not even going to lie, we were early risers at the beginning of the week, but we were dragging by the end! And it may be a YMMV situation but our server (Kenneth) told us straight out because we were on the DxDP we got an extra drink. He definitely mentioned the bloody mary and described it to me in depth. I almost felt guilty that I don't like them and went with the lemon drop (which was delicious!) so I definitely think they're included! I don't think there's a bad view in the house, to be honest Hope you guys get to go and you enjoy it as much as we did!!

Just waiting on a reservation to open up!! Once that happens I'm going to add the DxDP to the Polynesian part of our stay because the price of the brunch really makes it worth it! Even compared to just using the TIW! Especially because I know DH will be very unimpressed with the mimosas and will want a beer to the free drink will be nice! I've actually never had a bloody mary and will probably hate it but I would rather try for $0 than for $15! haha