Debz
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Aug 18, 1999
- Messages
- 25
Cast of characters:
DH-just turned 40, loves Disney, leaves the planning to me.
Me, DW-36 Disney fanatic, obsessive planner, must have magic every moment!
Hotels: Beach Club/Polynesian
Day 9
This being our last day we decided to spend it at our favorite parks. The MK and Epcot. I wanted to finish the trip with Illuminations because that is my favorite. We started off by having breakfast at Kona Café. No Tonga toast today. I wanted to be hungry for lunch so I had a lighter breakfast.
MK was first today. We love the WDW Railroad so we decided to take it around the park (its become a ritual on the last day). After the train ride we took a leisurely stroll up Main St.. I was starting to feel really sad. I hate the last day.
I tried to forget my troubles and did some of my favorite rides like HM, Pirates. I havent done the Tiki birds since it was the old show. I loved the new one and I was sorry I skipped it for the last 10 years or so. We never got to do the Jungle Cruise the line was always too long and they didnt offer fast pass. We did get a FP for BTMRR though. I had to do this one last time. While waiting for our FP we caught the Diamond Horseshoe Theatres show. They changed the show since the last time we were there. We loved the magician. He was a hoot! After BTMRR I stopped in the Christmas shop. I have to by an ornament each visit. I actually bought a couple. There were so many pretty ones.
Over to Tonys for lunch. I had the tomato and fresh mozzarella salad. This was so yummy. The best one Ive ever had. I had the grilled chicken Caesar salad for an entrée and DH had the chicken parmesan over linguini. His chicken portion was huge and very cheesy. It looked delicious. He said it was very good. My salad was really good too. Of course I tried the tiramisu and thought it was pretty good, but not as good as Alfredos. It was much better than Mama Melrose though. It's a character lunch so we got some great pictures with Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and Eyore.
After lunch we sat on the porch at Tonys and watched the parade. It was a good spot because it started to rain a bit. It was the only rain we saw the whole trip. We had 11 beautiful, sunny days in Fla. The rain only lasted a minute or so. Got some great pictures of the parade from the porch. I was really getting depressed and weepy because I knew it was time to say goodbye to the Magic Kingdom. I was dreading the moment. It was so hard to tear myself away. The only conciliation was that we were heading to Epcot next. I dried my eyes and boarded the monorail. Isn't that last glimpse of the castle difficult???
I perked up once over at Epcot. We did the single rider line for Test Track. The wait time was 75 minutes for stand by. I don't know how people wait that long? We were on the ride in a few minutes. We had great luck and ended up sitting together in the car. We had to do SSE one more time. The music at the end of this ride gets to me, especially on my last day at the parks. We had a PS at Spoodles for dinner and decided to walk from SSE over to the International Gateway.
We had yet to explore the countries on the left side of the park so we stopped at each one starting with Mexico and ending in France. We stopped at each gift shop and took some pictures. We spoke to many of the cast members. Theyre all so friendly, especially in Germany. We worked our way around and exited to the Boardwalk.
We went to check in at Spoodles. This would be the only sour moment of the trip. We had to wait in line to check in. Once at the podium they told us that they were 20 to 25 minutes behind for priority seating. I thought that was a little odd. I was told that priority seating means that you would get the next available table. Anyway, they gave us a pager and we sat outside to wait. And we waited and waited. We were speaking with a young couple who were honeymooning. They told us they did not have a PS and were waiting a while.
We waited 40 minutes and I was beginning to get upset it being our last night I wanted to see Illuminations one last time. Well remember that big convention that moved into the Yacht and Beach Club? Apparently they all decided to go to Spoodles for dinner and didnt bother to make reservations. We went back to the podium and complained (in a nice way) that we were waiting for 40 minutes and we had a PS reservation. We were told our table was being bussed as we spoke. We decided to wait by the podium. We waited and waited. In the meantime the young honeymooners without a PS reservation were seated at their table. I was starting to get really upset at this point and approached the manager and told her that people without reservations were being seated before us. In a very nasty way she said the she had been paging us. Our pager never went off. Whether she was lying or not Ill never know. She made it seem like she was paging us over and over for a long time. I don't get it because we approached her 10 minutes earlier and were told our table was being bussed. Whatever, my husband suggested that we should get a free drink for the inconvenience and they agreed.
We were not going to let this dampen our vacation or our opinion of Spoodles in any way. I enjoyed a nice glass of wine and my husband had a nice cold beer. Dinner was delicious. I had the Arugula salad and some of their yummy bread with the hummus spread. DH had a salad and we both had the medallions of Fillet Mignion. We passed on dessert. We had picked up some stuff at the bakery in Germany earlier for dessert.
We still made it to Illuminations with time to spare. It was getting harder and harder to face reality that the trip was coming to an end. I can still hear the music of Illuminations in my head. Im so sorry I didnt buy that cd. Does anyone know where I can get one or will I just have to wait till our next trip? After Illuminations we walked slowly back to Future World. We found out that Mousegear would be open for another hour so we decided to shop a while and let the crowds thin.
After shopping we sadly took that last walk to the monorail stopping a few times to look back. I think it was at this point that we began talking about our next trip. It was funny because at the beginning of this vacation my husband said that he didnt want to return to Disney for 2 years. As we were walking to the monorail he asked me when we should book next years trip. Woo hoo!!! Were thinking about Christmas time next year. Ive always wanted to see the parks and resorts decorated. So plans are in motion for next year late November or early December.
Reflecting back, I have to say that our vacation was everything we hoped it would be. My obsessive planning, organizing and time spent reading trip reports really paid off. Many thanks to all that post on these boards. Ive learned so much from you all. We had such a great time and had so many special moments that I can truly say it was the best vacation ever.
DH-just turned 40, loves Disney, leaves the planning to me.
Me, DW-36 Disney fanatic, obsessive planner, must have magic every moment!
Hotels: Beach Club/Polynesian
Day 9
This being our last day we decided to spend it at our favorite parks. The MK and Epcot. I wanted to finish the trip with Illuminations because that is my favorite. We started off by having breakfast at Kona Café. No Tonga toast today. I wanted to be hungry for lunch so I had a lighter breakfast.
MK was first today. We love the WDW Railroad so we decided to take it around the park (its become a ritual on the last day). After the train ride we took a leisurely stroll up Main St.. I was starting to feel really sad. I hate the last day.
I tried to forget my troubles and did some of my favorite rides like HM, Pirates. I havent done the Tiki birds since it was the old show. I loved the new one and I was sorry I skipped it for the last 10 years or so. We never got to do the Jungle Cruise the line was always too long and they didnt offer fast pass. We did get a FP for BTMRR though. I had to do this one last time. While waiting for our FP we caught the Diamond Horseshoe Theatres show. They changed the show since the last time we were there. We loved the magician. He was a hoot! After BTMRR I stopped in the Christmas shop. I have to by an ornament each visit. I actually bought a couple. There were so many pretty ones.
Over to Tonys for lunch. I had the tomato and fresh mozzarella salad. This was so yummy. The best one Ive ever had. I had the grilled chicken Caesar salad for an entrée and DH had the chicken parmesan over linguini. His chicken portion was huge and very cheesy. It looked delicious. He said it was very good. My salad was really good too. Of course I tried the tiramisu and thought it was pretty good, but not as good as Alfredos. It was much better than Mama Melrose though. It's a character lunch so we got some great pictures with Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and Eyore.
After lunch we sat on the porch at Tonys and watched the parade. It was a good spot because it started to rain a bit. It was the only rain we saw the whole trip. We had 11 beautiful, sunny days in Fla. The rain only lasted a minute or so. Got some great pictures of the parade from the porch. I was really getting depressed and weepy because I knew it was time to say goodbye to the Magic Kingdom. I was dreading the moment. It was so hard to tear myself away. The only conciliation was that we were heading to Epcot next. I dried my eyes and boarded the monorail. Isn't that last glimpse of the castle difficult???
I perked up once over at Epcot. We did the single rider line for Test Track. The wait time was 75 minutes for stand by. I don't know how people wait that long? We were on the ride in a few minutes. We had great luck and ended up sitting together in the car. We had to do SSE one more time. The music at the end of this ride gets to me, especially on my last day at the parks. We had a PS at Spoodles for dinner and decided to walk from SSE over to the International Gateway.
We had yet to explore the countries on the left side of the park so we stopped at each one starting with Mexico and ending in France. We stopped at each gift shop and took some pictures. We spoke to many of the cast members. Theyre all so friendly, especially in Germany. We worked our way around and exited to the Boardwalk.
We went to check in at Spoodles. This would be the only sour moment of the trip. We had to wait in line to check in. Once at the podium they told us that they were 20 to 25 minutes behind for priority seating. I thought that was a little odd. I was told that priority seating means that you would get the next available table. Anyway, they gave us a pager and we sat outside to wait. And we waited and waited. We were speaking with a young couple who were honeymooning. They told us they did not have a PS and were waiting a while.
We waited 40 minutes and I was beginning to get upset it being our last night I wanted to see Illuminations one last time. Well remember that big convention that moved into the Yacht and Beach Club? Apparently they all decided to go to Spoodles for dinner and didnt bother to make reservations. We went back to the podium and complained (in a nice way) that we were waiting for 40 minutes and we had a PS reservation. We were told our table was being bussed as we spoke. We decided to wait by the podium. We waited and waited. In the meantime the young honeymooners without a PS reservation were seated at their table. I was starting to get really upset at this point and approached the manager and told her that people without reservations were being seated before us. In a very nasty way she said the she had been paging us. Our pager never went off. Whether she was lying or not Ill never know. She made it seem like she was paging us over and over for a long time. I don't get it because we approached her 10 minutes earlier and were told our table was being bussed. Whatever, my husband suggested that we should get a free drink for the inconvenience and they agreed.
We were not going to let this dampen our vacation or our opinion of Spoodles in any way. I enjoyed a nice glass of wine and my husband had a nice cold beer. Dinner was delicious. I had the Arugula salad and some of their yummy bread with the hummus spread. DH had a salad and we both had the medallions of Fillet Mignion. We passed on dessert. We had picked up some stuff at the bakery in Germany earlier for dessert.
We still made it to Illuminations with time to spare. It was getting harder and harder to face reality that the trip was coming to an end. I can still hear the music of Illuminations in my head. Im so sorry I didnt buy that cd. Does anyone know where I can get one or will I just have to wait till our next trip? After Illuminations we walked slowly back to Future World. We found out that Mousegear would be open for another hour so we decided to shop a while and let the crowds thin.
After shopping we sadly took that last walk to the monorail stopping a few times to look back. I think it was at this point that we began talking about our next trip. It was funny because at the beginning of this vacation my husband said that he didnt want to return to Disney for 2 years. As we were walking to the monorail he asked me when we should book next years trip. Woo hoo!!! Were thinking about Christmas time next year. Ive always wanted to see the parks and resorts decorated. So plans are in motion for next year late November or early December.
Reflecting back, I have to say that our vacation was everything we hoped it would be. My obsessive planning, organizing and time spent reading trip reports really paid off. Many thanks to all that post on these boards. Ive learned so much from you all. We had such a great time and had so many special moments that I can truly say it was the best vacation ever.
