Romantic Week Trip (9/11-9/16) to Disney World

[FSU Girl]

Hi Everyone,

I recently finished my first ever Trip Report for a Disney cruise I took back over Christmas. I had so much fun writing that, I thought I'd give this a try and write about my last Disney World trip I took with my boyfriend. I hope you all enjoy it and it can help with future planning. I hope it's ok to write about a trip that happened back in September, I hadn't known about this site back then.

A little background information: This trip was a romantic getaway trip for me and my boyfriend. I am completely Disney obsessed, I'm working on making my boyfriend that way I am the planner in the relationship and did a lot of research and planning for this vacation. I've been going to Disney since I was a baby. I live in South Florida so it makes traveling there pretty easy.

For this vacation I wanted it to be the ultimate romantic trip, with a lot of fine dining and relaxation thrown in with the Disney parks. Before this trip, me and my boyfriend went to Disney for one day to Epcot. This would be our first week long trip together so I think it's kind of special.

SEPTEMBER 11, 2016

I had picked the Contemporary to stay at for our trip since neither of us had stayed at this resort and it had always been a dream of mine to stay in the hotel that had the monorail go through it.

We got to the hotel around 3pm. I had put in a request to have a King Bed room, but when we checked in they told us they gave us a room with two queens. I was a little sad, I had called and put online this request and had thought not many people would want this kind of room since most people were traveling with kids. We waited to talk to a manager for over an hour, but eventually one came and he offered us a one bedroom room at Bay Lake Tower. Normally I would be very excited about this upgrade, but I had really wanted to stay at the Contemporary and was sad I wouldn't be in the hotel with the monorail going by. So the manager said we could spend two nights in BLT and change to a king room on the 11th floor facing the lake in the Tower at the Contemporary for the rest of our trip. I said I wanted to do that. The manager was doubtful and said he'd keep our BLT room blocked off for the week in case we changed our mind.

So off we went to BLT. We had a room on the 8th floor that "faced" the lake. Our view was more of the other side of BLT that curved around and the pool. The picture above was the window in front of the elevators.

The room was beautiful - and so spacious! I have never stayed in such a big hotel room in my whole life.

I apologize for the unmade bed in the pictures of the room. I forgot to take any until we had already spent the night there.

There is a full kitchen in the one bedroom villa. We didn't really use it except to keep our water bottles cold.

The room in the background is where the washer and dryer are located. I could see how these could come in handy if we stayed a long time or had kids.

There was one TV in the living room and one TV in the bedroom.

The bed was really comfy and I love that they have a bathtub that has sliding doors that open into the room. If we had a room looking at the Magic Kingdom we could have watched the fireworks from the bath.

I am in love with this shower. There was a waterfall showerhead on the ceiling that was amazing. I need to get one in my house.

This is the only villa I've ever stayed at Disney, does anyone know if they all have this type of shower?

We spent a couple hours relaxing and getting ready for dinner...at Victoria and Albert's!!

I was so excited to eat here. I had done a lot of research and knew this meal was going to be amazing. We had planned this trip only about a month out so I had to stalk the reservations website to get anything. I had checked every day and nothing was coming up. I noticed that there was a table for 4 available on our arrival day so I called and asked if we could have it. The lady on the phone said no, but put us on a waiting list. A week before we were set to leave the table for 4 was still there. So I tried calling again and this time the guy said yes I could have the table!

Up next, the most amazing meal of my life...

I hope you all enjoyed reading, as I said I'm still pretty new to the Trip Report writing. This is also my first time using Photobucket so I hope you can all see my pictures okay.

 

[FSU Girl]

I wanted to give you a rundown of our itineraries for the week.

9/11 - Arrive at Disney World - Check in to Contemporary (BLT for two days) and have dinner at Victoria and Albert's.
9/12 - Animal Kingdom in the morning, Hollywood Studios in the afternoon. Mama Melrose Fantasmic package for Lunch.
9/13 - Day off from the parks. Change hotel rooms back to the Contemporary. Dinner at California Grill.
9/14 - Magic Kingdom. Dinner at Be Our Guest.
9/15 - Epcot. Lunch at Food and Wine Festival. Dinner at Teppan Edo (Japan)
9/16 - Departure day Breakfast at 1900 Park Fare

 

[JessicaMason]

Great trip report!!!!
Cant wait to read more

 

[FSU Girl]

VICTORIA AND ALBERT'S

I was so excited for this dinner. I love fancy meals and this meal is probably the nicest I've ever had. As I mentioned before, I only got the reservations a week before. I forewarned my boyfriend of the cost and he was excited to try something so nice as well. Having a room on the monorail loop made getting over to the Grand Floridian pretty easy. It was a Halloween Party night so most people sitting around us were dressed in costumes while we were dressed in a suit and ball gown (I've never had an opportunity to dress up to fancy before.)

I love the Grand Floridian hotel. I think it is the prettiest on property and can't wait to stay here (going in May for my birthday)

They had a live band playing in the lobby.

The restaurant is located on the second floor next to the restaurant Citricos.

These doors won't open unless they see you dressed to perfection and they know you are their for a reservation. Everything about this place made me feel so special.

I think this restaurant is the only 5 diamond rated restaurant in the state of Florida (not entirely sure, if someone knows of another could you let me know?)

The doors opened for us and we were seated at a table pretty close to the entrance. Each table has two people who wait on you, we had a man and a woman who were very attentive and knowledgeable on all the courses. You are given a choice between a 10 course meal and a 7 course meal. At the time the 10 course was $210 a person and the 7 course was $185. We chose the 7 course. The other one just didn't have as many items I found appealing. I like with the 7 you can choose from 2 or 3 selections, whereas the 10 course is set. I don't think I'm adventurous enough for that yet. They also have wine pairings you can do, but neither of us really like wine so I got a martini instead.

I snapped a quick picture of the plate before it was taken away.

The view from our table.

The menu for this evening.

The meal starts with an amuse-bouche (which they won't tell you ahead of time what it is) Todays was sea bass and tasted delicious. The biggest concern for my boyfriend was that this meal would have too much food with 7 courses, but the sizes of each course are small and you leave feeling full, but not too full.

A picture of the pink Himalayan salt on the table.

The first course I ordered the Octopus, but I HATE tomatoes and mentioned this to them to see if it could be done without them. The waiter went back to speak with the chef and said that the chef would create an entirely new meal just for me. It was hands down the most delicious Octopus I have ever had in my life.

The second course I had was Popcorn Crusted Diver Scallop, Panisse and Blood Orange

This was delicious.

My boyfriend got King Salmon with melon. He really enjoyed this.

I guess I forgot to take a picture of the next course. I had the rabbit, it was good but I did feel bad eating a little rabbit.

For the main course both me and my boyfriend ordered the Australian Kobe-Style Beef with Bordelaise Sauce. It was delicious. They had bone marrow on the plate which I have never had before and actually enjoyed immensely. The little baby vegetables were so cute too.

They brought a cart of assortment of cheeses over and created a plate for each of us to have.

The dessert was sooo good. By this point I was getting rather full. I ordered the Hawaiian Kona Chocolate Soufflé

While eating they have a woman playing a harp in the center of the room.

So that concludes the best meal of my life. At the end they offer you an assortment of chocolate, which I asked if they could box up for us since we were so full. This was the only good reason to having a fridge in our villa. They also gave us a fruitcake, which we had for breakfast the next day.

Women are given a single red rose upon leaving.

In this picture you can see my shoes I wore (they were terribly uncomfortable, but looked great) and the bag they put the chocolates and fruitcake in.

I hope someone is enjoying my trip report? Or am I reliving these memories alone? lol. Well I hope this gives you a glimpse into what I think is the best restaurant in the state of Florida.

more later